Nursing Assignment

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Nursing Assignment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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NURSING ASSIGNMENT
The Prelude
The Patient name is Sherry and she is from Bundaberg. The Patients identified health
condition is Ataxia and will undergo the procedure of lumber puncture for further diagnosis.
The imaging test performed and their results were CT(abnormal), MRI of the brain(-ve), MRI
spinal (normal) and thoracic spine MRI (-ve). The symptoms experienced by the patient are
balanced problems, misaligned gait, vision difficulties and poor coordination. The symptoms
are affecting her ability to perform daily life activities .The patient works at public hospital as
a Registered nurse and has experienced through the diagnostic processes during her practice.
Sherry engages in various physical activities to keep herself healthy however the symptoms
are restricting her from performing physical activities. The symptoms poor coordination,
balance problems, vision difficulties and broad gait are experienced by the Patient. Thereby,
the patient experience struggles in performing her routine activities at work and home. Sherry
s mother is her social support. She has high health literacy however she is experiencing the
feeling of uncertainty. The identified health goal is to manage the symptoms of ataxia which
will improve the quality of life of the patient. The empowerment of the patient in self-
management of symptoms, use of certain therapies and adaptive devices can ease the
symptoms and increase the independency of the patient.

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NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Introduction
Ataxia Telangiectasia (A-T) is primary immune-deficiency disorder that hampers
numerous organs in the body. A-T is characterised via several neurological problems mainly
manifested as abnormality in maintaining body balance, frequent sinus, respiratory problems
and dilation of the blood vessels surrounding the eyes (Gatti and Painter 2013). From the
prelude discussed above, Sherry has no significant lifestyle factor that leads to the
development of the disease (pre-trajectory) however; there must be certain underlying genetic
factors which are not highlighted in the prelude. The trajectory onset in case of Sherry
includes body balance problems, misaligned gait, vision difficulties and poor or-ordination.
Under this trajectory onset, her condition is unstable as she is unable for perform her daily
living activities and this is hampering her quality of life both in personal and professional
domains. Therefore the goal for the proper management of the disease and thereby improving
the quality of life of Sherry will mainly involve proper management of the her symptoms and
thereby helping her to gradually enter into stable state.
The following assignment will help to elucidate the best suited strategies that will be
helpful in bringing Sherry back to stable life and the entire care plan with be drafted through
the perspective of primary care nurse. In discussing the care plan steps for the promotion the
self-management of disease, the assignment will take help of the socio-ecological framework
of health.
The socio-ecological framework
According to O’donoghue et al. (2016), socioecological framework is a strategy
undertaken to promote optimal care delivery or care co-ordination the patients.

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NURSING ASSIGNMENT
The person
According to the prelude, Sherry loves to perform daily physical activities. According
to Tweedy et al. (2017), people who are suffering from ataxia often reduces the rate of the
exercise dur to decrease in their body balance, misaligned gait, vision difficulties and poor
co-ordination in the other parts of the body. However, this decrease in physical activity
further increases the complications of the disease as might be the case with Sherry (Tweedy
et al. 2017). So Sherry must be encourage to perform mild to moderate physical activity
under the controlled supervision of an expert physical trainer. Tweedy et al. (2017) is of the
opinion that exercise helps in the improvement of the muscle strength of the people suffering
from ataxia. Keller and Bastian (2014) highlighted in the research that a home balanced
exercise program helps in improvement of the body balance of the people with cerebellar
ataxia. They conducted a 6-week individualized home-based balance exercise program and
the subsequent neurological assessment revealed improvement in the walking speed
irrespective of age, reduction in ataxia severity along with improvement in the locomotor
performance. Keller and Bastian (2014) stated that the exercise program must be designed to
provide a notable challenge to the body balance to the affected person. Sherry’s mother has
high literacy so she must be encouraged via changing her beliefs in ataxia to provide active
support to her daughter towards effective recovery. According to Heijmans et al. (2015),
communicative and critical health literacy plays an important role in successful management
of the chronic diseases like ataxia. However, rate of health literacy its effect of disease
outcome varies with socio-demography and disease characteristics.
The close interpersonal relationship
According to Miller and DiMatteo (2013), social support coming from the family
members, friends, social networks and colleagues provides the patients with practical help
and thus helping to buffer the stress of living with illness. Miller and DiMatteo (2013) further