Case Study on Diabetes: Impact, Needs, Goals, and Role of Nurses

Running head: CASE STUDY ON DIABETES
Case Study on Diabetes
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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CASE STUDY ON DIABETES
CASE STUDY ON DIABETES
Case Study
Alice Jones is a 57-year-old woman who is admitted recently to the local hospital by
the neighbours in an unconscious condition. She was found in the garden area by one of her
neighbours and as per the information of the neighbour, Alice is living in that house for last
30 years and she has two daughters and one son. However, she is living alone as hers son is
living 5 km away from her house. Her daughters are living in another country. After
admission to the ward, hospital authorities had informed her son and after 2 hours her son
reached to the hospital. During this time, Alice regained her consciousness and doctors
assessed the patients for finding the vital signs of the patients. On assessing the patients, it
was reported by the nurses and the doctors that the patients had the problem of hypertension
and her blood pressure was represented as 156/ 100. Her breathing rate was almost 20
breaths/ min. At room temperature, her oxygen saturation rate was approximately 90% (SpO2
= 90%). Her son reported that she has been suffering from diabetes type 2 mellitus for the last
10 years. She is under treatment for this condition. However, her son is not aware of the
hypertension condition. She lost her husband 2 years ago and during that, she was in deep
trauma and stopped all type of social interaction. She went outside of her house rarely. The
person who admitted her to the hospital also confirmed that fact. As she had a fall, doctors
performed an x-ray and it was found that she had a fracture in her right leg and she had a
severe pain. She had a pain score of 7/10. After she had consciousness, the care providers
asked the patient about her condition and Alice informed that since the death of her husband,
she became a regular smoker. Approximately she smoked 6-7 cigarettes per day. When,
assessing the blood sugar level of the patient, it was reported that the blood glucose level of
the patient was approximately 13.3 mmol/L. For managing this hyperglycaemic condition,
Alice was prescribed to take metformin in a regular basis. Therefore, Alice confirmed that
from last two days, she was skipping her medicine and no one was there to bring her the

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CASE STUDY ON DIABETES
CASE STUDY ON DIABETES
medicine and as she was not able to go outside; she skipped her medicine. However, the
doctors and the nurses faced difficulties during the assessment process as she was not able to
express her thoughts in a well manner due to poor communication skills. Along with this, she
also reported that she felt lonely at her house after death of her husband and that was the
reason she isolated herself from the society and did not want to interact with anyone around
her. She also experienced about loss of appetite a few days ago and a few days ago she also
experienced senseless in her house for a few moments of time.
Impact on the Well Being of the Individual
The effect of diabetes type 2 mellitus among the patients is characterized by the
negative effect on the patients. It is reported that, the negative affective disorders and
psychological distress incidents are very common among the patients with diabetes type 2
mellitus patients. Along with this, it is also reported in various studies that, the incidents of
clinical depression are also very common among the patients having diabetes mellitus type 2
(Sweileh et al.,2014). In this case study, it can be observed that, the patients had the problem
of diabetes type 2 mellitus and since the death of her husband; she was feeling depressed and
withdrew herself from all kind of social interaction. Along with this, in multiple studies, it is
reported that, lack of proper social interaction can hamper the quality of life of the individual
as well and thereby causing the gradual degradation of the psychological and physiological
state of the patients (Schwarzbach et al., 2014). While discussing the negative impact of
diabetes type 2 mellitus among the patients, it is stated that, the psychological syndromes
such as depression and anxiety have been consistently associated with poor outcomes in
patients with T2D. Along with this, in other studies, it was stated that, complications
associated with the diabetes type 2 mellitus is closely associated with the poor eating habits,
fear of having hypoglycaemia among the patients (Sweileh et al.,2014). The present case
study also depicted about the depression and poor eating behaviours among the patient. The