Case Study on Peter Mitchell

Running head: CASE STUDY ON PETER MITCHELL
CASE STUDY ON PETER MITCHELL
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CASE STUDY ON PETER MITCHELL
Clinical reasoning cycle helps healthcare professionals in developing care-plans by indentifying
the cues of the patients, processing the information and setting care priorities (Borch et al., 2016). In the
assignment, clinical reasoning cycle would be applied to the case study of the patient named Peter
Mitchell in order to identify two care priorities and care interventions. Peter Mitchell is a 52-year-old
person who is suffering from diabetes as well as obesity with series of complications. He also smokes
heavily and he is not following proper diets and exercise regimes important for his health. He is also
suffering from hypertension and sleep apnea. Care priorities and nursing interventions would be
developed in this assignment for Peter with the help of clinical reasoning cycle.
One of the most important care priorities for Peter would be to develop his symptoms of
hypertension. It has been found already by the nurse that his blood pressure was high. The normal
blood pressure of the patients needs to be around 120/80 mmHg. Studies have found that high blood
pressure is intricately associated as one of the risk factor for cardiovascular disorders (Edelman et al.,
2015). Hence, Peter can become highly vulnerable to cardiovascular issues besides diabetes. Peter is
found to smoke 20 cigarettes per day, which acts as one of the contributing factors for high blood
pressure level. Cigarette smoking has negative heath impacts on heart and blood vessels where nicotine
participates in increasing the blood pressure, boosting the heart-rate, and causing the arteries in
becoming narrow and constricted (Borch et al., 2016). It has been found that if the restricted blood flow
becomes long-drawn-out of that of the arteries, a heart attack or deadly blood clots might also take
place. Many of the studies are of the opinion that smoking as well as exposure to second hand smoking
increases the risk for the build-up of the plaques or the fatty substances inside the arteries ( Conn, 2015).
This leads to cardiovascular situations called atherosclerosis that is a process, which is in turn
accelerated by high blood pressure. Moreover, cigarette smoking is also seen to worsen many other
health problems related to high blood pressure like that of the cardiopulmonary problems (Rasjö Wrååk
et al., 2015). Hence, Peter can be found to get highly exposed to cardiovascular disorders like heart

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CASE STUDY ON PETER MITCHELL
attack, atherosclerosis as well as cardiopulmonary problems. Hence, the first priority would be managing
his conditions of hypertension and reduction of smoking of cigarettes (Jung et al., 2017).
In order to manage his conditions of hypertension, the nursing professionals would need to
undertake important interventions. The first intervention would be to develop heath literacy of the
patient and educate him about the negative aspects of smoking and its effects on blood pressures
(Harvey, 2015). Studies have found that when patients are educated about the negative impacts of their
lifestyle-choices and they are made aware how such choices are affecting their health, their compliance
with medications and treatments increases and they feel motivated to change (Jung et al., 2017). Hence,
Peter would be provided health education about his unhealthy choices of smoking. The next step would
be prescribing him proper medications that control the blood pressure. Studies have found that lifestyle
modifications like eating healthy diets, losing of extra weights and reducing different sodium intake in
different food components, undertaking physical exercises regularly can help in managing the blood
pressure level (Feinman et al., 2015). Patients can also be taught to learn the ways of measuring blood
pressure at home. This helps them to understand their health condition and thereby take precautionary
measures (Bashur et al., 2015). All these interventions would be suggested to Peter as well. In order to
help Peter in quitting smoking, the nurse would need him to refer to a substance abuse counselor. The
expert can help him to overcome his smoking habits through psychotherapies like cognitive behavioral
therapies (Gonder-Frederick et al., 2016). This therapy is actually a talking therapy that can help people
in managing their problems by changing the ways they think and behave, making them self-motivated
and determined. The nurse attending Peter can also suggest him about nicotine replacement therapy
(Rasjö Wrååk et al., 2015). This therapy mainly functions by exerting specific types of psychological
effects on his mood as well as different attention states. Studies have also found the success of many
nicotine replacements products like Sublingual nicotine tablet, Nicotine lozenge, Nicotine nasal spray,
Nicotine inhaler, and others (Butcher et al., 2018). Hence, use of such products can be suggested to