Nursing Assessment: Pathophysiology, Clinical Manifestation, and Management

Running Head: NURSING ASSESSMENT
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Nursing Assessment.
Name of Institution.
Student Number.
Due date.
Student Number
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Running Head: NURSING ASSESSMENT
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Introduction.
Nursing Assessment is aimed at gathering information related to the patient, thus it is the
beginning of the nursing process. It is a step by step procedure that cannot be avoided to ensure
patient safety. The assessment also helps to identify the abilities of a patient (Giger, 2016 ). The
assess activity may be comprised of observations of the patient to see the signs and symptoms
and looking at the medical and the social history of the patient (Kuhn & Elliott. 2013). It
identifies the needs of a patient and it touches across pathophysiology, clinical manifestation,
nursing management, and collaborative management. Therefore, it is very important for
providing information to be used in establishing a nursing care plan.
Pathophysiology.
Pathophysiology is a discipline that points on the signs and the functions of an organ that
is diseased for diagnosis and patient care. It is a fundamental aspect in the nursing practice as it
enables the nurses to build affirm foundation (DiBardino, & Wunderink, 2015). Therefore, the
knowledge can enable one to learn the physical abnormalities occurring due to a disease in the
body. It is a discipline that helps nurses to provide and ensure patients care by understanding all
the signs and symptoms exhibited by their patients.
Therefore, the pathophysiology of pneumonia is an infection that causes the abnormal
functionality of the lungs. This is caused by a viral or bacteria that affects the alveoli in the lungs
making it be filled up with fluid (Mandell, 2015). When infected a person show visible
symptoms which include, having difficulties while breathing, fever and coughing. As observed,
Tom did have difficulties in breathing where he had respiratory distress and increased accessory
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Running Head: NURSING ASSESSMENT
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muscle use (Nicholson et al. 2013). The disease is more serious in children below five years and
adults above 65 years. It does affect people whose immune system is not strong.
The organ that is being studied here is the lungs to determine the extent of the illness. It
also existed in different forms; hence, a comprehensive study on patient health history must be
done. It is hence classified according to the type of bacteria causing it.
Types.
Community-acquired.
It occurs when the patient is outside the hospital hence is the most known type of pneumonia.
Therefore, it is brought about by bacteria, fungi, and viruses in the surrounding environment of
the patient.
Hospital-acquired.
This is very dangerous as it is gotten by people how are already ill in the first place and the have
weak immune systems. Also, the bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and most happens to
people with breathing problems and have been put in ventilators to aid them in breathing.
Aspiratory pneumonia.
This type is caused when a person inhales a substance into the lungs. The substances may
include, food, drinks or saliva. Also caused by use of alcohol and drugs excessively.
There Tom may have hospital-acquired pneumonia.
Clinical Manifestation.
The clinical manifestation is the signs and symptoms related to a disease. For a proper clinical
manifestation to be done the doctor must do comprehensive pathophysiology of pneumonia to
assert the disease existence (Roux, at al. 2014). Thus, the clinical manifestation for pneumonia is
characterized by:
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Running Head: NURSING ASSESSMENT
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 Difficulties in breathing and chest pains. This is mostly seen when a person is coughing.
The patient may complain of straining. As illustrated in the case study Tom did have a
hard time breathing.
 Secondly, the patient experiences a high fever. The patients tend to seat abnormally while
shivering at some time which is ironical. Tom's temperature was reading 38.2 degrees
Celsius in comparison with the healthy persons 37 degrees Celsius.
 Moreover, he or she can experience shortness the breath rate. Therefore, the heart is
forced to work a lot to supply oxygen to the whole body. this way the heart rate become
abnormal like that of Tom which is at 125 beats per minute (Cole & Robertson. 2015).
 In addition to this, the patients may complain of fatigue while still in the hospital bed
without doing any work. This is due to the overworking of muscle that facilitates
breathing (Mahony. 2018)
 Furthermore, the patient may experience diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. This is a very
dangerous clinical manifestation as it dehydrates the patient.
 Lastly, for older people, they may show signs of memory loss or confusion. The patient
tends to forget simple details and even becomes confused about the family members that
visit them in the hospital.
Respiratory Assessment.
This is a focused assessment aimed to further and deeply look at the body system, which in this
case it is the breathing system (Govindaraj & Riyaz.2014). Therefore, the nurse has to collect
information about the patient’s history by requesting signs such as cough and difficulties in
breathing (Hoskins. 2015). The essence of carrying this assessment id to ensure that no detail is
left in the process of workload to ensure patient safety (Rhedin. 2015). For the case of Tom, the
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