Essential Care Needs

This essay will focus upon meeting one of Mrs Jones’ essential care needs. Her care needs include loss of appetite, dehydration, constipation and pain. The need which will be focussed upon is Mrs Jones’ loss of appetite and nutrition. According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code, nurses must be able to provide the fundamentals of care including nutritional care. The code also states that nurses must practice using the best available evidence (NMC 2015). Mrs Jones does have other needs as stated in the case study and meeting Mrs Jones’ nutritional need can contribute to her other care needs such as constipation. According to McCallum and Reade (2009) constipation can be reduced through adequate fibre and water intake and constipation
This was an in-depth look at Mrs Jones’ nutritional status taking into account a variety of factors. This is an important part of the process as it ensures that key information and data can be collected which forms a basis for making decisions with Mrs Jones about the goals she would like to achieve and what would be appropriate for her. According to Kaur Laurence (2017), a dietary history should be taken in order to fully assess nutritional intake. So, Mrs Jones was asked what she usually eats in a typical day to identify nutritional intake. Physical appearance of Mrs Jones was also taken into account. A person who is wearing clothing which appears loose can be an indication of poor nutrition (Kaur Laurence 2017). In addition, Mrs Jones’ mobility was assessed. Poor mobility can indicate a reduction in muscle mass (Kaur Laurence 2017). It is also an indication of Mrs Jones’ ability to carry out tasks such as shopping for food and the preparation of food which can seriously have an impact on dietary intake. Marsh (2009) identifies that a nurse visiting a patient in their home should try and see if the patient has out-of-date food on their shelves as this can indicate that food hasn’t been eaten. In addition, Mrs Jones’ social situation was assessed and was asked if she has any friends or family that live
According to Tucker and Dauffenbach (2011) the evaluation is re-visiting the goals that were set with the patient at the planning stage and identifying if the goals have been met. The evaluation took place 1 month after the goals were set. Firstly, Mrs Jones’ nutritional status was re-assessed using the MUST tool. Discussion between Mrs Jones and her family member took place to identify if the diet plans were being followed and if Mrs Jones was attending social events with family and friends. Other factors were also taken into consideration such as Mrs Jones’ physical appearance and mobility. After discussion, Mrs Jones appetite had improved and was following the diet plan accordingly. Mrs Jones’ MUST score had improved and was 0 which was a good improvement. However, Mrs Jones still had constipation so a referral was made to the GP to identify underlying causes. Overall, Mrs Jones is making good progress towards achieving a healthy, balanced lifestyle and diet and still requires further encouragement from family and friends to eat healthy balanced meals daily. The MUST tool used to assess Mrs Jones’ nutritional status is effective as it keeps track of Mrs Jones’ progress towards a healthy weight. Also, subjective data such as physical appearance is a good method of evaluation as good nutrition can affect physical