This was several years ago for me, but we could use the word possible in front of undiagnosed diagnoses.

so- acute abd pain r/t possible ischemic bowel aed..... I am not sure if that's kosher where you are but I hope this helps.

 Thanks for both of your help! I ended up using "unknown cause" but then when I got to clinical this morning it turned out that she had surgery two days ago to remove part of her bowel and the dr hadn't put the notes in the computer from the surgery. Luckily my instructor took pitty on me since the patient's bowel problems were the LEAST of her concerns. 

I don't completely understand the point of actually writing care plans since most care plans include clicking on several boxes in a computer.

Oh well, I just think of it as paying my dues to become an RN.

Thanks again!

 CD-

I think I am "sort-of" learning the nursing process. The program that I am in focusses a lot on theory. All of the students keep moaning and groaning on how they wish we would have more clinical time (and we will- we have six more quarters with at least 1, sometimes 2, clinical courses each quarter). I have to do a case study paper utilizing the nursing process to analyze the care of my patient for this past week. The paper has to include rationale to manage abnormal labs as well as rationale from journal articles regarding interventions for my nursing diagnosis. I guess we'll have to see how the paper goes...