Case Study of Mrs. Jones: Clinical Reasoning Cycle and Miller's Functional Consequences Theory

Running head: CASE STUDY OF MRS. JONES
CASE STUDY OF MRS. JONES
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CASE STUDY OF MRS. JONES
Introduction:
Clinical reasoning cycle can be developed as the procedure by which nursing
professionals can successfully collect information of the patient and process the information
(Levett- Jones, 2013). Thereby, they are seen to be able to come to an understanding of the
problem or situation of the patient and thereby plan and implement interventions of the patient
(Zudeima et al., 2015). The professionals then evaluate the outcome, reflect, and learn from the
entire process to develop their own knowledge and engage their skills for better service delivery
to patients in the future. With the help of this framework, nursing professionals would mainly
conduct analysis of the case of Amelie. She is 89 year old and has been suffering from a number
of different consequences due to old age. Arthritis and visual impairment had destroyed her
quality life. This has resulted in loss of mobility and pain in joints. She is also suffering from
constipation. In this assignment also, the clinical reasoning cycle should be used in order to
identify the care priority and accordingly intervention plan should be set for the patient to ensure
higher quality life of the patient.
Mrs. Amalie is an 89-year-old widow. She is a German by birth and her second husband
was an Australian who had died just two years ago. She had done extensive travelling with her
husband after their retirement and had been very active socially. She had good connections both
with her son from first husband who stays in Germany. She also has connections with the
daughter of her husband. However, recently due to macular degeneration, she has stopped
driving. Her arthritis of both kinds has affected her mobility that has now made her socially
excluded. She is not having proper diets as her house cupboards only show some tins of soup and
baked beans. She is also losing weight, not eating properly and is highly vulnerable to become

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CASE STUDY OF MRS. JONES
socially excluded by not being able to keep physical contacts with relatives and other members
of the community.
It has been seen that the patient is suffering currently from a large number of symptoms
like joint stiffness, limited joint movements, painful joints in hip, knee, fingers and back, swollen
feet and enlarged joints. She also suffers from constipation as well as occasional dizziness.
Vision deficit, non-significant recent weight loss is also seen. Moreover, it is also seen that
patient in the case study also fails sometimes to take her medicines due to the excess pain she
faces because of her arthritis. Therefore, it is very important for the nursing professionals to
understand the main causes of the occurrence of the symptoms and thereby develop care
priorities to help the patients overcome the issues effectively.
The patient is mainly suffering from osteoarthritis that is a progressive joint disease that
affects mostly cartilage (Garner et al., 2017). Cartilage mainly helps the bones to glide over each
other when a joint bends or straightens. In case of osteoarthritis, the cartilage is seen to wear
away over time resulting in the rubbing of the bones with each other. This causes pain and
inflammation at the joints. For this reason only, Mrs. Jones is seen to suffer massively due to
paints resulting in occurrence of painful joints, swollenness and inflammation. The risk factors
that have made Amelie vulnerable are her age and her gender. Researchers are of the opinion
that aged individuals above the age of 65 are highly vulnerable to the disorders. Moreover,
females are more prone to development of such disorders than their male counterparts are.
Moreover, she is also seen to be exposed to rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers have stated that
this disorder is an autoimmune disorder where the immune systems of the individuals are seen to
attack the tissues of the body mistakenly. This in turn affects the lining of the joints, in turn
resulting in painful swelling. This causes bone erosion and joint deformity. Hence, the patient is