Gastrointestinal Nursing Diagnoses & Care Plans

Gastrointestinal Nursing Diagnoses & Care Plans

Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders such as gastroenteritis, peptic ulcer disease, and GI bleeding are common in NCLEX questions and med‑surg rotations because they affect fluid balance, nutrition, and patient safety.
This page gathers our gastrointestinal nursing diagnoses and care plans so you can quickly find focused assessments, priority interventions, and rationales for the most frequently encountered GI conditions.

How to use this guide

• Start with the list of individual GI care plans below (upper and lower GI, inflammatory, infectious, and bleeding conditions).

• Open each care plan to review: brief disorder overview, causes, signs and symptoms, GI-focused assessment, nursing interventions with rationales, and expected outcomes.

• Use these care plans as a study guide for NCLEX and a quick reference when caring for patients with GI problems in clinical or practice.

Suggested care-plan list structure

You can keep everything in one list or break it into Infection/Inflammation, Obstruction/Motility, Bleeding, and Other GI Conditions.

Infection and inflammation

• Gastroenteritis – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan​

• Peptic Ulcer Disease – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan​

• Gastritis – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan

• Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan​

• Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis) – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plans

• Appendicitis – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan

Motility, obstruction, and elimination

• Dysfunctional Gastrointestinal Motility – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan

• Constipation – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan​

• Diarrhea – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan

• Small Bowel Obstruction – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan​

• Bowel Incontinence (Fecal Incontinence) – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan​

Bleeding and high‑risk GI conditions

• Gastrointestinal Bleed – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan (+ video review)

• Upper vs Lower GI Bleed – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plans

• Esophageal Varices – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan​

• Hemorrhoids / Lower GI Bleeding – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan​

Other GI conditions

• Nausea and Vomiting – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan

• Abdominal Pain – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan​

• Malnutrition / Imbalanced Nutrition: Less Than Body Requirements (GI) – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan

• Risk for Deficient Fluid Volume related to GI Losses – Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan