Case Study Analysis: Nursing Priorities for Peter Mitchell

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS (PETER MITCHELL)
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

2CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Nursing priority is a crucial healthcare strategy followed by community nursing
professionals. This helps the nursing professionals to apply interventions for critically or
terminally ill patients depending upon their needs and using it they could develop a plan of care
for each of the patient and their associated ailments (Wielenga et al., 2015). Therefore, to
develop a plan of care depending upon the healthcare needs of the patients, nursing
professionals should utilize the Levett- Jones clinical reasoning cycle (Dalton, Gee & Levett-
Jones, 2015). Through the help of the multiple steps of Clinical Reasoning Cycle, nursing
professionals are able to develop intervention goals as per patients’ ailments and care needs
and then assists them to develop an action plan so that health improvement could be observed
(McSharry & Lathlean, 2017).
The primary aim of this assignment is to analyze the case study of Peter Mitchell (52),
who is suffering from poorly managed diabetes since 9 years and due to this, he is suffering
from severe health complications, such as overweight, stress, hypertension and sleep apnoea.
Therefore, this assessment would help to identify the two nursing priorities such as his
prolonged diabetes and specifically his overweight and his sleep apnoea as it could lead to
severe cardiac disorder in the patient.
While analyzing Peter’s condition, it was seen that his prolonged diabetes is his primary
healthcare complication (Dalton, Gee & Levett-Jones, 2015). Further, his healthcare
complication includes hypertension; sleep apnoea, shakiness in hands, increased hunger,
diaphoresis and high blood sugar level and shortness of breath. Peter has quit his job so that he
could resume his insulin treatment however it has affected him negatively by increasing his
weight and he gained more than 40 kg in this period (105 to 145 kg). As per Montesi et al.
(2016), prolonged diabetes could be one of the reasons for his increased weight as a majority of
the people associated with prolonged diabetes were associated with overweight in the research
of Mitanchez et al. (2015). Further, it was also seen that he lacks motivation and could not
comply with the protein-rich diet and physical; an exercise which was given to him to reduce his
weight. His low motivation, self- confidence could also be observed through the aspect that he
become socially isolated and suffered from depression and hypertension throughout his ailment
(McMullen & Sigurdson, 2014). Mentally and emotionally, he was weak as his two sons were
not regular at visiting their ill father and hence, he lost all the hope and motivation.
Further, Peter’s elevated diabetes condition was the first cue which was noticed and it
was identified that all the secondary conditions occured due to this condition (Dalton, Gee &

3CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Levett-Jones, 2015). This elevated diabetes affected his employment, increased his social
stigma and contributed to increasing in his weight. Further, it was seen that the patient is
suffering from depression and as per de Morais et al. (2014), prolonged health concerns could
increase stress and depression among patients as the patients are generally unaware of the
preventive measures to overcome it rapidly. This made him suffer from depression and stress
and resulted in his elevated blood pressure which ultimately increased his hypertension. As per
Holwerda et al. (2014) social isolation and hypertension are two primary feelings that the patient
suffering from chronic healthcare condition suffer from because they are not confident about
their health and loses their determination power. Hence all these cues were collected from
Peter’s health condition and his elevated blood glucose level due to his prolonged diabetes was
identified as the primary healthcare condition that was the reason of his resultant secondary but
severe healthcare complications (Schroedl et al., 2014).
Processing the information of Peter and his history indicated that the health complication
of Peter was interlinked with each other. His 9 year prolonged diabetes condition lead to his
obesity and depression condition. This further increased the risk factor of sleep apnoea of the
patient as American Diabetes Association (2016) mentioned that prolonged diabetes with
excessive weight increases the risk factor for the cardiovascular condition. Further, it is evident
that due to his elevated weight, he was unable to communicate in society because it increased
his social stigma and affected his mental health condition (American Diabetes Association,
2015). Hence, identification of healthcare gaps indicated that his improper management of
diabetes was the sole reason, due to which all the secondary healthcare complication arises.
Therefore, the two healthcare complications which would be targeted for the healthcare
intervention would be his improper breathing pattern, that lead to his elevated blood pressure
and risk of COPD and sleep apnoea. Further, the second problem which would be targeted in
this scenario would be his overweight condition, so that correlated sleep apnoea, the risk of
cardiac disorders and obesity could be eliminated and his quality of life could be improved
(Messner & Bernhard, 2014).
As per the Levett-Jones and as per these two nursing priorities for the healthcare for the
patient would be chosen so that he could overcome the health complication easily (Dalton, Gee
& Levett-Jones, 2015). The first goal for patient management would be his uncontrolled
breathing pattern and the patient would be involved in the cares process as
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. (2019) mentioned that the inclusion of patient health literacy