A Summary Of Mary's Nursing Assessment
Throughout Mary’s nursing assessment many different skills and tools were used to complete a holistic assessment. The skills that were used throughout the assessment were communication, listening, care, compassion, respect, commitment and dignity.
“As a nurse, you understand the need for effective patient communication. To provide ethical, high-quality care, you must be aware of and respond appropriately to your patient’s cultural beliefs, values, language, and literacy level”. (American Nurse Today 2017)
Communication is a vital skill within the nursing community. Verbal and non-verbal communication was used throughout the assessment to make Mary feel at ease. If a patient had a hearing impairment you would have to overcome these communication barriers by speaking in a louder tone of voice or writing down what you are saying to make sure all information is understood or heard properly. When you are documenting any assessment notes or nursing notes your writing should always be readable to make sure other team members or members of the multidisciplinary team can read and understand them.
“Good professional listening is a foundation stone of nursing, as it has a positive impact on patients’ health”. (Nursing Times 2016). …show more content…
Listening skills are a vital skill in nursing as it shows the patient that the nurse cares for them as they are taking time to sit down and listen to what they are saying. .
Care and compassion are also two important skills within the nursing community. We can show compassion through respect and empathy. Patient choices should also be respected. You should always respect the patient’s choices made, privacy and physical and emotional state. Dignity is an important skill for nurses to comply with as it helps the patient feel at ease and to make them not feel exposed when they need help the most. You should always listen to the patients concerns, ask for their opinions and involve them in as many decisions as possible.
One of the tools that was used when assessing Mary’s health and wellbeing was the MUST tool. This tool is used to assess if the patient is a healthy weight. Within my six weeks of clinical placement Mary was weighed every 5 days to ensure she was losing a high amount of weight or gaining any unwanted weight, this was done consistently as Mary was not eating or drinking as well as she used to due to frustration within herself. Mary is dependent on staff when it comes to eating and drinking as she has lost all grip in her hands. She is always a pureed diet and stage 3 consistency for fluids. As she is a wheelchair user and does not get much physical activity she is at a higher risk of obesity. The Braden scale was also used to assess Mary’s skin and to help prevent the development of pressure sores. This was assessed every 4 hours as Mary was not able to move herself so she had to be on a reposition chart to ensure she was not putting a lot of pressure on one area of her body.
From Mary’s assessment is has shown how to provide holistic care for her through using the nursing model Roper, Logan and Tierney and by assessing her twelve activities of daily living.
Mary is very dependent on nurses and care workers, Mary is regularly updated about the dangers within the care home such as fire escape routes and the process of the evacuation if a fire is to happen, she can tell you what bells to ring or shout if she suspects anything dangerous within the home. Mary goes to a day center every Friday where a taxi will collect her and bring her to and from this. She always needs to be accompanied outside of the home as she has limited knowledge in terms of traffic skills and where she can go that has wheelchair
access.
Mary’s assessment showed that her multiple sclerosis was her key problem. Mary’s physical health deteriorated very quick within the last 2 years which made her a wheelchair user as she lost all feeling from her hips down recently Mary has started to lose feeling in her both hands. Due to Mary, not being able to feel anything from her hip down she became incontinent to faeces which then affected her psychologically. Due to this being the key problem with Mary her pad was checked hourly to ensure she was not incontinent and that there was no redness around the anus where it would be moist if incontinent, Mary stated that this was very embarrassing for her as she could not tell the staff when she had gone or not and felt like she was getting monitored more often than the patients that are older than her. “Fewer people with MS experience bowel incontinence than constipation, but it can be one of the most distressing MS symptoms”.(MS Society, 2013)
In conclusion, I believe that Mary was appropriate for me to base my assignment on as she needed 24-hour care to maintain her health and wellbeing. Throughout my assignment, I have outlined ‘The Nursing Process’ the ‘Roper-Logan-Tierney model. I have also talked about the rationale of my patient choice, the skills and tools used throughout Mary’s nursing assessment and one key patient problem.
“As a nurse, you understand the need for effective patient communication. To provide ethical, high-quality care, you must be aware of and respond appropriately to your patient’s cultural beliefs, values, language, and literacy level”. (American Nurse Today 2017)
Communication is a vital skill within the nursing community. Verbal and non-verbal communication was used throughout the assessment to make Mary feel at ease. If a patient had a hearing impairment you would have to overcome these communication barriers by speaking in a louder tone of voice or writing down what you are saying to make sure all information is understood or heard properly. When you are documenting any assessment notes or nursing notes your writing should always be readable to make sure other team members or members of the multidisciplinary team can read and understand them.
“Good professional listening is a foundation stone of nursing, as it has a positive impact on patients’ health”. (Nursing Times 2016). …show more content…
Listening skills are a vital skill in nursing as it shows the patient that the nurse cares for them as they are taking time to sit down and listen to what they are saying. .
Care and compassion are also two important skills within the nursing community. We can show compassion through respect and empathy. Patient choices should also be respected. You should always respect the patient’s choices made, privacy and physical and emotional state. Dignity is an important skill for nurses to comply with as it helps the patient feel at ease and to make them not feel exposed when they need help the most. You should always listen to the patients concerns, ask for their opinions and involve them in as many decisions as possible.
One of the tools that was used when assessing Mary’s health and wellbeing was the MUST tool. This tool is used to assess if the patient is a healthy weight. Within my six weeks of clinical placement Mary was weighed every 5 days to ensure she was losing a high amount of weight or gaining any unwanted weight, this was done consistently as Mary was not eating or drinking as well as she used to due to frustration within herself. Mary is dependent on staff when it comes to eating and drinking as she has lost all grip in her hands. She is always a pureed diet and stage 3 consistency for fluids. As she is a wheelchair user and does not get much physical activity she is at a higher risk of obesity. The Braden scale was also used to assess Mary’s skin and to help prevent the development of pressure sores. This was assessed every 4 hours as Mary was not able to move herself so she had to be on a reposition chart to ensure she was not putting a lot of pressure on one area of her body.
From Mary’s assessment is has shown how to provide holistic care for her through using the nursing model Roper, Logan and Tierney and by assessing her twelve activities of daily living.
Mary is very dependent on nurses and care workers, Mary is regularly updated about the dangers within the care home such as fire escape routes and the process of the evacuation if a fire is to happen, she can tell you what bells to ring or shout if she suspects anything dangerous within the home. Mary goes to a day center every Friday where a taxi will collect her and bring her to and from this. She always needs to be accompanied outside of the home as she has limited knowledge in terms of traffic skills and where she can go that has wheelchair
access.
Mary’s assessment showed that her multiple sclerosis was her key problem. Mary’s physical health deteriorated very quick within the last 2 years which made her a wheelchair user as she lost all feeling from her hips down recently Mary has started to lose feeling in her both hands. Due to Mary, not being able to feel anything from her hip down she became incontinent to faeces which then affected her psychologically. Due to this being the key problem with Mary her pad was checked hourly to ensure she was not incontinent and that there was no redness around the anus where it would be moist if incontinent, Mary stated that this was very embarrassing for her as she could not tell the staff when she had gone or not and felt like she was getting monitored more often than the patients that are older than her. “Fewer people with MS experience bowel incontinence than constipation, but it can be one of the most distressing MS symptoms”.(MS Society, 2013)
In conclusion, I believe that Mary was appropriate for me to base my assignment on as she needed 24-hour care to maintain her health and wellbeing. Throughout my assignment, I have outlined ‘The Nursing Process’ the ‘Roper-Logan-Tierney model. I have also talked about the rationale of my patient choice, the skills and tools used throughout Mary’s nursing assessment and one key patient problem.