Case Study Essay

Submitted By JaneNormandy
Words: 4928
Pages: 20

Assessment of a patient during the span of one duty.

This assignment is based on assessment of a patient which must be carried out with the nursing process; the nursing process consists of four elements, which are assessment, diagnosis, implementation and evaluation. The focus of this essay is to enable an effective ‘patient centred care’, it is important to treat every patient as an individual, this includes their preferences, care needs, individuality (NMC, 2008). After assessing a patient, it is important to identify necessary actions that address patient’s care needs; the implementation of care given must be closely monitored in order to evaluate its effectiveness in terms of the patient’s ability to achieve the set goals (Pearson et al, 2005). The report of the patient will present a full picture of the patient’s current health status including other tasks that needs to be completed by nurses that takes over the shift.

The importance of this essay to my professional development is to provide nursing students with more insight on how to assess and identify physical and psychological caring needs of patients who are unable to carry out some or all daily activities either temporary or permanently due to their medical condition. By the end of this essay I like to have demonstrated better understanding on the principles of care for diabetic patients.

The essay will discuss my chosen patient’s health status during one shift of duty in relevance with a chosen framework that highlights the appropriate intervention. The framework chosen for this essay is the Roper, Logan & Tierney, (2008). The model will enable me to draw up a nursing care plan that is tailored to the patient’s needs by applying the nursing process.

This essay is based on a day shift which started from 07:30 to 15:30. For the purpose of this essay, I will only apply and discuss the part of this model that is relevant to both my patient and time of day.

My discussion on this essay will start with the introduction of my patient; this will consist of patient’s background, gender, age, medical history and diagnosis. For the purpose of this essay the chosen patient will be called Mr Jacob in order to preserve his identity. It is important that patient’s information and trust is maintained at the strictest confidence at all times (NMC, 2008).

Mr Jacob is 68 years old man with his ethnic origin from African Caribbean. His medical history shows he has type 2 diabetes which is a long-term (chronic) condition caused by high level of glucose in the blood, this is also known as non-insulin dependant diabetes (Watkins, 2003), however Mr. Jacob is placed on both insulin and tablet form of medication. Mr. Jacob was admitted into hospital due to acute hypoglycaemia, he fell into a coma which led to a fall, and he also has an ulcer on his left ankle with healing impairment due to his condition.

The reason I chose this patient is because diabetes has become a fast growing condition in the country due to obesity, a study by BBC news shows that type 2 diabetes is now prevalent among children as young as 11 years due to obesity (BBC News, 2007)

Diabetes mellitus is a condition of impaired glucose regulation in the body. The pancreas is one of the endocrine organs which secrete both insulin and glucagon to regulate blood glucose level. Diabetes is usually diagnosed in combination of different types of glucose test e.g. fasting plasma glucose test (FPG), the person must not eat for 12 to 14 hours; the test is then carried out with blood glucose monitor. Diabetes is detected with presence of 126mg/dl, or higher in the blood, in UK measurement will be 7 mmol/l or higher (William & Lemke, 2002).

There are different types of diabetes, however, for the purpose of this essay; my discussion will be focused on type 2 diabetes. This occurs when the body produces too little insulin to work, or when the cells in the body do not react properly to insulin.