Indigenous Australian woman | Assessment

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

1NURSING
Introduction
The ssignment is based on the case study of Patricia, a 58-year old Indigenous
Australian woman. The assignment will deal with highlighting the clinical priority followed
by devising of the nursing interventions to address the clinical priority followed by the
evaluation of the outcomes. The structure of the assignment will be based on the Levette
Jones Clinical Reasoning Cycle.
Consider patient's situation
Patricia is a 58-year old Indigenous Australian woman with a history of Type 2
Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and peripheral vascular disease (PVD). She had a previous history
of developing large vascular ulcer on her left calf following fall and was sustained with large
graze and bruising. Due to extending wound, Patricia has developed left below knee
amputation. Currently she is in her 5th day of rehabilitation and has arrived to the in-patient
rehabilitation.
Collection of cues and Processing of information
The case study reported that her T2DM is controlled by diet and intake of the oral
hypoglycaemic medication. Vascular ulcers are defined as braches in the skin occur as a
result of complication in the vascular or circulatory system. The predisposition of the T2DM
has made Patiricia vulnerable towards PVD. Diabetes leads to the narrowing of the arteries
and the veins through deposition of cholesterol resulting in the PVD. The blockage on the
blood circulation increases the probability of developing ulcers or wound. The presence of
T2DM also delays the process of wound healing. This is the reason why Patricia was
suffering from PVD management for the past 6 months. Delay in wound healing increases the
vulnerability of developing bacterial infection. The bacterial infection occurring due to

2NURSING
unmanaged wound is imparted by multi-drug resistant bacteria. This might be the reason why
her wound is unresponsive to the antibiotics (Chawla, Chawla & Jaggi, 2016).
Identification of problems
1. Lack of proper diabetes management
Though the case study highlighted that her T2DM is well-controlled by diet and
hypoglycaemic medication but the development of PVD indicates that she might be suffering
from high level of blood cholesterol resulting from the improper absorption of the cholesterol
due to disequilibrium in the concentration of glucose in the blood. This indicates that there is
lack in the effective self-management skills of diabetes. She works full-time in the local
news-paper even at the age of 58 and lives alone as she is a divorce and both her children
reside elsewhere. Nguyen, Chitturi and Maple‐Brown (2016) stated that among the
Aboriginal older adults who resides in the remote or in the rural areas of Australia, receive
less healthcare access. Due to lack of proper health-care access and since she lives alone, she
might be suffering the lack of poor self-management skills of diabetes and overall it increases
the severity of diabetes. Patricia is an indigenous women who lives alone in a rural area with
long history of type 2 diabetes and this indicate that she must be suffering from poor
healthcare access and lack of proper self-management skills of diabetes.
2. Threat in living independently and alone at home due to prosthetics
Davie-Smith et al. (2017) stated that the majority of the patients who have undertaken
the amputation in the lower limb and having PD have diabetes in 50% of the cases. These
people are known to have poor quality of life as they are unable to reside independently.
Being able to walk with prosthesis is of prime importance in order promote independent
living and to increase the overall quality of life. However, people with prosthetics and are