Designing an Effective Nursing Care Plan for an Aged Person

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Nursing Assignment
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Introduction
The assignment is based upon designing of an effective nursing care plan for an aged
person going though crisis situation. The goal is to promote evidence based nursing care
approaches for the patient. Some of these nursing care approaches have been tested in an
actual clinical scenario and have been seen to offer positive results. Here, the clinical
reasoning cycle or millers functional consequences theory have been used to analyse the
present condition of the patient. The priority designing helps in narrowing down to the
primary focus of care, which helps in improving the quality of care. Additionally, adopting of
the millers functional consequences theory can help in considering the situation of the
patient such as old age the conditions associated with old age which further help in
providing an effective and balanced care.
In the current scenario, the case study of Amalie Jones had been taken into
consideration. She is an 89 years old woman and has been affected with a number of clinical
and co-morbid conditions such as hypothyroidism, macular degeneration and rheumatoid
arthritis. Recently, the macular degeneration and rheumatoid arthritis has been taking over
her social life as she has not been able to keep up with her community. The macular
degeneration has limited activities such as driving to the community centres to catch up
with her friends as well as the rheumatoid arthritis has restricted her daily movements.
Discussion:
Clinical reasoning cycle- Part A
Patient condition consideration
Based upon the present health condition of the patient the nursing professional
deployed in the care of Amalie Jones needs to design a comprehensive care plan. The patient
here had a number of co-morbid health conditions such as poor eye sight, hypothyroidism
and acute joint pain. Amalie was survived her husband Henry and children from her previous
marriage. Therefore, owing to her physical health she had a number of restrictions in her life
some of which prevented her from living her life fully. Additionally, she considered herself to
be a burden on her family and hence secluded herself. The patient had macular degeneration
which meant that her condition would only deteriorate with age (Vries et al., 2016).
Additionally, the rheumatoid arthritis allowed her little physical movement. This restricted

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NURSING ASSIGNMENT
her from efficiently carrying out some of her daily activities for living such as she could not
manage cooking for herself and keeping the house clean. On further assessment, it was found
that the patient was losing weight owing to hypothyroidism. Reports and evidences have
further linked the presence of hypothyroidism with rheumatoid arthritis.
Collection of cues
The clinical condition of the patient could be further accessed for the collection of
cues. The patient had swollen and stiff joints which restricted her movements around the
house as well as restricted her activities of daily living (ADL). The patient here also suffered
from occasional dizziness vision impairment. The deficit in vision could be attributed to the
effect of old age which leads to deposition of fat tissues in the retina. Since it was a
progressive disorder the chances of recovery in the patient was low.Additionally, the
rheumatoid arthritis further restricted the movement of the patient. the patient was
prescribed a number of medications such as effective doses of paracetamol were provide to
the patient in quarterly to hourly cycle in order to regulate the pain the patient. The patient
had been put on 400 mg ibuprofen three times daily. The patient was also provided 200 mg o
of hydrocholorquinine to regulate the condition of rheumatoid arthritis in the patient.
However, as argued by McCorkell, Harkin, McCrory, Lafferty & Coates (2017)
overdependence upon pain killer could probably result in worrisome conditions such as
intestinal retraction.Though, the patient gave an affirmative reply regarding intake of
medications. However, in the absence of a family or someone to take care of the patient it
was quite possible that the patient actually missed the effective doses of medication.
Processing of information
The patient complained of acute pain owing to rheumatoid arthritis which made daily
living difficult for her. The patient also suffered from hypothyroidism which made the
condition worse for her. As mentioned by Dewar & Kennedy (2016), the presence of
hypothyroidism could be linked to the development of arthritis in the patient. Low levels of
thyroxin have been seen to trigger the condition of osteoporosis affecting bone density and
influx of calcium potassium in the bones (Brooke & Manneh, 2018). However as argued by
Nicolini, Vandenberghe & Gastmans (2017), the rheumatoid arthritis is often triggered owing
to the development of an autoimmune disorder. Under an autoimmune disorder the body