Designing Effective Nursing Care Priorities: A Case Study of Mrs. Amalie Jones

Running head: NURSING PRIORITIES
Nursing Priorities
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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NURSING PRIORITIES
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................2
Discussion:.............................................................................................................................2
Part A:....................................................................................................................................2
Identification of nursing care priorities..................................................................................2
Considering the condition of the patient....................................................................................2
Collecting cues...........................................................................................................................3
Processing of information..........................................................................................................4
Identification of problems/issues...............................................................................................4
Part B:.....................................................................................................................................6
Discussion regarding the top nursing priority........................................................................6
Goal setting................................................................................................................................6
Action planning..........................................................................................................................7
Evaluation of outcomes..............................................................................................................7
Reflection...................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................8
References..............................................................................................................................9

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NURSING PRIORITIES
Introduction
The current assignment focuses upon the aspect of designing effective nursing care
priorities. For the purpose of which some of the evidence based approaches had been used by
the nursing professional such as the clinical reasoning cycle as well as Miller’s functional
consequences theory. The clinical reasoning cycle is used to identify some of the top nursing
priorities based upon the condition assessment of the patient. The priority designing helps in
the development of a sharp focus of care. It helps in improving the quality of care delivered
to the patient. Additionally, adopting the miller’s functional consequences theory helps in
understanding the effect of important factors such as age upon the health and lifestyle
processes of a person.
In the current assignment, the case study of Mrs. Amalie Jones had been taken intro
consideration. She is an 89 year old woman living alone after the death of her husband and
suffers from a number of co-morbid health conditions such as –arthritis, hypothyroidism and
macular degeneration. Thus, Amalie feels very connected with her community and wants to
stay with them. However, in order to do that she may have to depend on health care
professionals for help and support.
Discussion:
Part A:
Identification of nursing care priorities
Considering the condition of the patient
The nurse deployed in the care concern of Amalie had to make an effective note of the
number of co-morbid health conditions of the patient. The nursing professional in charge of

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NURSING PRIORITIES
Amalie noticed that she has difficulty with her vision owing to macular degeneration. The
particular condition also restricted some of daily activities such as the driving to her German
association. She had also recently felt the need to depend on someone for conducting her
daily care activities owing to her restricted mobility patterns, as she had lately developed
rheumatoid arthritis. Amalie had also recently lost a lot of weight which could be attributed to
her condition of developing hypothyroidism. The macular degeneration may result in blurred
vision at the centre of the visual field and has been related with age (Antoun, Titah &
Cochereau, 2016). On top of that the condition of rheumatoid arthritis had limited the daily
level activities of the patient. As mentioned by Bliddal, Nielsen & Feldt-Rasmussen (2017), a
direct link has been found between the conditions of hypothyroidism and rheumatoid
arthritis.
Collecting cues
The nurse had taken some important cues based upon the clinical condition of the
patient. Amalie had stiff and painful joints which restricted her movements or perform some
of the daily care tasks. Additionally, the patient suffered from occasional dizziness and vision
deficit. The dizziness could be attributed to the condition of hypothyroidism, which resulted
in low thyroxin levels, whereas the low vision restricted her from performing some of the
active social activities. This had further resulted in the patient suffering from social isolation
as she could no longer go and meet her German community. The patient was put on a number
of effective medication strategies. The paracetamol was administered in order to provide
effective pain management to the patient. This was further support with 400 mg ibuprofen
doses three times daily. The patient was also provided hydrocholoroquine in a dose of 200
mg three times daily to manage her conditions of rheumatoid arthritis. The arthritis and vision
impairment had limited some of her daily living activities; that is she could no longer get up