May 31, 2008, 12:07 pm
Like Tropicana said that's a big assignment - use the word limit and what you've covered in class to guide the depth of your responses
Case Study.
A 79 year old woman, Mrs C is to be admitted to an aged care facility. She was widowed 6 months ago. Her daughter found her at home with urine and faeces throughout the house, no food in the cupboard and Mrs C was not orientated to time or place. She has an infected leg ulcer on her Right leg, and both legs were grossly oedematous. Mrs C has a medical history of Cardiac failure, leg ulcers and diabetes type II.
- How common ageing changes will complicate the patients condition
Ok I'm not so sure what you've been focussing on in class, this feels like one of the questions where you've covered aging and they want you to relate it. Possible ideas include impaired healing in older people, increased vulnerability to skin breakdown and infection due to decreased mobility, cognitive changes/delerium.
- An outline of the complications pertaining to each specific disease entity.
The disease processes here are all intertwined, the CCF is causing the odema which is placing her at high risk of leg ulcers. Diabetic neuropathy also places her at high risk, while uncontrolled blood sugars impair healing.
I would start with the CCF and the process by which is causes odema, then how odema increases risk of skin breakdown and then finally the complications of diabetes.
- A discssion on the funding issues for this patient
I have no idea here this is obviously something you've covered in class, it might focus on home help? or inpatient care? or rehab? or long term placement?
- A discussion of the level of nursing care required, how the level of care is assessed (validated tools) and any special requirements for the patient.
Ok you have several issues here
her delerium means you should be assessing her cognitive state - glasgow coma score or some other delerium tool
she is at risk of more pressure areas - pressure area risk assessment
she's probbaly a falls risk - falls risk assessment
she should be on a fluid balance chart because of the odema and CCF
she will definitely need freqent BSL checks because she's unlikely to have been controlled her own diabetes considering her cognitive state
wound care charts, dressing regimes
- The legal and social issues around admission to an aged care facility
I have no idea with this one - I'm assuming it revolves aroudn things you've covered in class like her legal and medical power of attorney, what her family want vs the patients own independence.
- The type of Community Support needed if patient returns home.
I'm guessing this covers things like meals on wheels, home help for cleaning and domestic things, possible RDNS followup for wound dressings, diabetes education
Anyway hope that helps a bit
