Managing Self-Care Deficit in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Nursing Care Plan

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

1NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Introduction
Multiple sclerosis is an immune-mediated disorder that is progressive in nature. The
immune system that is designed to keep the body healthy instead attacks the body parts that are
vital for the proper functioning of the body system. This disease has several unpredictable
symptoms which can be of varying intensity. Some of the patients are seen to experience
numbness and fatigue, while there are several cases where the patients suffer from paralysis, loss
of vision along with reduction of brain functions (Asano & Finlayson, 2014). This paper aims to
discuss the case of a patient who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and has been
suffering from social isolation hence is need of proper nursing care plans. With the help of the
clinical reasoning of the cycle, the top priorities of nursing used to manage the patients suffering
from multiple sclerosis have been identified. Management of self care deficit has been identified
in this study, which can be improved using self management interventions. These self
management interventions have proved to be helpful for such patients as they have shown to
decrease the anxiety and depression in patients hence improving their psychological well-being.
Part A
The clinical reasoning cycle is used for the following assessment. The clinical reasoning
cycle is an important process by which nurses and the clinicians is able to collect cues and
process the information. Through this they come to an understanding of a patient problem or
situation, plan and implement interventions, evaluate outcomes, and reflect on and learn from the
process (Levett-Jones, 2013).

2NURSING ASSIGNMENT
1. Consider the patient
The patient here is Mr. Dinh Nguyen, who is a widower of 83 years old. Six years ago he had
been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He was further diagnosed with osteoarthritis four years
ago, however right now it was controlled on medication. In the year 1976, Nguyen’s migrated
from Vietnam.
Dinh currentlylives alone in his own two story home where previously he had lived with his
wife, Ngoc. However she had died twelve months ago. Dinh remained independent after the
death of his wife. However with the increase of his grief, his isolation had increased. There was a
marked decline in his health along with the worsening of his exacerbations due to MS. Dinh and
Ngoc were childless, therefore Dinh had no immediate family. However, Dinh had a brother,
Bao, who along with his family lived close by. However Dinh had no desire to get involved with
them and did not want bother them.Dinh had a small income whoch he received from his self-
managed superannuation therefore was careful enough with his money. His finances were just
enough to cover his expenses. He took vacations once every year, however this year he was
unable to do so due to his impaired mobility.
2. Collect cues/information
Apart from being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he was also diagnosed with
osteoarthritis. He suffered from other disorders like some blurred vision along with face
numbness that occurred often. Additionally he often had sensations like “electric shock” while
moving his head and neck. This sensation often travelled down his back and into his legs. This
impacted his mobility and gait in a severe manner. This is making his daily tasks difficult like
cooking, bathing and dressing. Acts like bending down to do up his shoe laces have become most