Nursing Case Study: Analyzing Alan's Health and Needs

This case study analyzes the health issues of Alan, a 75-year-old man living alone with vision impairment and a high BMI. The report addresses Alan's recent fall, loneliness, and difficulty with daily activities. It identifies major issues, including his high BMI, vision problems, and lack of social support, which are of particular significance for Alan. The study prioritizes loneliness and high BMI as key nursing concerns and recommends Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and counseling services to assist Alan. The report also discusses potential challenges during acute ward admission and emphasizes the importance of addressing Alan's physical and mental well-being to improve his quality of life. The report is a nursing case study that addresses issues of an elderly patient and proposes services to improve his health and well-being.

Nursing- Case Study

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
SECTION A & B.............................................................................................................................1
1. Presenting three question for Alan.....................................................................................1
SECTION C.....................................................................................................................................1
2. Presenting major issues......................................................................................................1
SECTION D.....................................................................................................................................2
3. Issues which are of particular significance for Alan..........................................................2
SECTION E & F..............................................................................................................................3
4. Identifying two issues on the basis of nursing priorities to address for Alan.....................3
SECTION G & H.............................................................................................................................4
5. Presenting two appropriate services to assist Alan.............................................................4
6. Presenting two main issues which may affect Alan while admitting to an acute ward.....5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Nursing is an occupational group of health care sector that mainly focus on providing
care to the individuals as well as the communities to maintain their health and lead a quality life.
Report is based upon a case scenario which helps to understand the ability in order to identify
factors which diminish quality of life in older adult and it also presents major issues which Alan
faces during his old age. The current report will identify two appropriate services that creates
impact on Alan and two issues which affect a person while getting admitted to an acute care
ward.
SECTION A & B
1. Presenting three question for Alan
Ques1. Why do you live alone?
Answer: Alan is an old man, and lives alone in second storey apartment but his family members
are not living with him in his own house. That is why he lives alone and he has no relatives who
may take care of him during the time of emergency. And as a result, to which, his loneliness has
made him depressed and frustrated by together making him helpless.
Ques2. How did you fell and what are the problems you faced?
Answer: While getting out of shower, Alan fell down because he is suffering from vision
impairment issues and as a result, he did not drive for long hours and can't even walk. But when
he was diagnosed by a nurse, Alan did not sustain by any injuries. Nurse only found that his BMI
is about 34.9 which is quite high for people of this age group and may create some other health
issues such as diabetes and high blood pressure, as well (Butcher and et.al., 2018).
Ques3. How will you manage work of your daily routine?
Answer: As Alan has been facing issues related to his weak vision impairment and due to his
high Body mass index, he also faced issues in walking, so he can't even walk for long distance.
As his flat is in 2nd storey, he had issue related to walk and buy food within few days because of
his vision and walking problem. But in emergency cases, when he wants to buy food item, he
found no one in his house who may help him during his bad times.
SECTION C
2. Presenting major issues
As per the case scenario, there are major eight issues has been found and these are
mentioned below:
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 Recent fall, when Alan was getting out of the shower but there is no serious injury in
his back.
 Alan is 75-year-old man, but has a high body mass index i.e. 34.9 and it has been
found quite high for this age group peoples as it only needs to be 31.1 for 65+
individuals.
 Being an old man and facing problems related to vision impairment, Alan finds it
difficult to manage things frequently and as he lives alone in second storey and have
no one to look after him (Moorhead and et.al., 2018).
 Alan has weak eye sightedness and as a result, he cannot drive for a longer time
period and can’t even walk for an extended period.
 Alan buy food and other essential items from petrol station within few days because
he had an issue while walking and due to his weak vision, he finds himself helpless
while purchasing food item.
 As he lives alone in his house and have no one to look after him, there may be a
chance to face another major issue of depression and loneliness.
 In his city, he has no relative or family member who may support him during his bad
time but he has social support from his neighbours who take care of Alan.
 As Alan is quite old, he could not come up with things and due to his vision and
walking problem, he is isolated from society too and has no person who can take care
of him to avoid the existence of any major health issue (Bates and et.al., 2018).
SECTION D
3. Issues which are of particular significance for Alan
Above mentioned issues are quite important for Alan because he lives alone after his
wife’s death and even has no relative and family members who can look after him. As Alan grew
older, he definitely needs at least moral support from his family and also needs a person who can
take care of him to make him feel good. This is also expected to avoid facing any another health
issue (Alligood, 2017). While on the other side, he is also suffering from his vision impairment
problem and as a result, he did not drive for longer hours and can’t even walk to purchase food
item from nearby areas and other essential things for his house. During the time of emergency
and because of his walking problem as well as high body mass index, Alan could not go for
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frequent shopping’s to buy things that shows that he needs a helping hand to assist him during
his bad times.
Moreover, Alan even did not leave his house for so long because he has a fear in him
where he might face some unfortune incident at his home during his absence. Further, his body
mass index is also quite high as compared to normal person that may sometime lead to other
health issues such as high blood pressure. As he is about 75-years-old, he needs some moral
support from his family members, but due to his loneliness, Alan find himself helpless and is not
even able to manage things accordingly. This could further lead him towards the state of
depression. Not only for Alan, but for almost all people who have crossed an age of 65 years
need their family member's support to look after them (Holloway and Galvin, 2016). Further,
Alan could not easily cope up with the things because of his old age and vision impairment and
walking issues.
Another major issue which Alan faces, is in regard to his high body mass index which
creates difficulty in his routine activity. After a particular age group, there are chances to raise a
person's BMI and in Alan’s case also, due to his high body mass index, he is unable to manage
things frequently such that, he faces problem to move ahead and is not able to walk towards his
2nd storey, where he lives. Therefore, it has been identified that focussing to resolve all these
major issues are of particular importance for Alan as well as other old age people.
SECTION E & F
4. Identifying two issues on the basis of nursing priorities to address for Alan
As, Alan faces issues and problems related to his health such that he recently falls and
have high body mass index, lives alone in his house. His vision is not as much strong because he
grew old so he is not able to walk enough and did not walk for longer time such that have an
issue related to buy food items, have no family support which help him during his bad situation
(Hockenberry and Wilson, 2018). There are two major issues which must be addressed as a
nursing priority and these should be taken into an account for Alan.
Two major issues are as follows:
 Loneliness: As Alan lives alone in second storey building and have an issue of vision
impairment which can be lead to mental stress. This is a situation where a person starts
neglecting his all daily routine work. This is an issue where Alan might start isolating
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himself from societal inclusion which may also lead to cause depression and hyper
tension etc. As a result, there may be some chances, that Alan has faces some
Neurological issues because currently he is live alone and little bit frustrated from his
loneliness which may be directly impact upon his behaviour as well as his mind too. So
that it is essential for a nurse to keep diagnoses his current situation and if they find any
changes related his mental situation then provide him early treatment so that it did not
lead to further big disease (Carpenter, 2018).
As it is quite necessary to cure issues of Alan because after sometimes if these are not
diagnosed then there is a chance that may be a man will die. In the case of Alan, it is quite
essential to check his mental status as a nursing priority so that it will further help to take any
decision related to his health.
 High Body Mass Index: Another issue related to Alan is related to his high body mass
index and due to it, he did not able to manage things frequently and it may also lead to
certain disease such as cardiovascular, pulmonary and musculoskeletal issues. As he is
old and has 75 age and recently he had fell so there is a chance that there may be some
internal harm to his body (Lindquist, Tracy and Snyder, 2018). Due to his high BMI,
Alan did not able to walk even and as a result he keeps himself out from society as he did
not come up. Because of his BMI and vision impairment he did not able to walk and buy
things frequently such that he needs someone who may look after and take care.
As Alan, getting off shower, there are some chances that he may cause some internal
problem and these should be treated in proper manner in order to save life of a person. Therefore,
these two issues are directly creating impact upon his present situation (Smith and Liehr, 2018).
SECTION G & H
5. Presenting two appropriate services to assist Alan
As Alan faces many issues, there are two appropriate services that assist him and cure his
problem which are mentioned below:
 Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), which is basically used to provide a range of
medication that will help Alan to cure his loneliness and other mental issues (Bates and
et.al., 2018). this facility is also available in Gold Cost. This therapy will aid Alan in
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order to overcome his problem related to not coping and social isolation or sudden
change in his behaviour. As CBT is a part of Alan's medication such that CBT mainly
focus on changing behaviour of a person. So that by taking this as a therapy, this will
assist Alan to overcome his problem related to loneliness so that it will not lead to any
major disease such as depression or hypertension etc. As Alan may be provided psycho-
social intervention that mainly help to improve mental health of a person as Alan is also
faces problem of loneliness so this help to amend its mental stress.
 In order to overcome his High body mass index or obesity problem, Alan can look for a
counsellor and find that Robina Hospital in Gold Coast cater a specialist particular to old
age group people. They are a licensed mental health professional who can easily
understand the problem of patient and they help Alan to overcome his depressed situation
and can decide best course of action which assist Alan to get rid out of his problem
(Holloway and Galvin, 2016). A counsellor provides him healthy diet plan which should
be follow by Alan and by this way he can live his life healthy. For this appropriate
service, hospital has a plan which is of minimal cost so that Alan will afford for a
therapist and by using this clinical suggestion, he will definitely overcome his high BMI
problem.
6. Presenting two main issues which may affect Alan while admitting to an acute ward
While admitting in an acute ward, there are some chances or issues which affect Alan
internally and these are mentioned below:
 Initially while taking an admission in an acute ward the first problem or issues which
Alan may suffer, such that as having a high body mass index which creates problem
relating to lift him up and in this situation, he may feel awkward. Further due to heavy
weight, Alan always need a single person who help him and provide all necessary things
and as he is not walk even properly which cause another major issue while admitting in
acute ward. Due to this problem, Alan find himself helpless (issues of Acute ward, 2018)
 Another issue which Alan faces during admission is that as he feels lonely in his house.
As a result, there may be chances that he feels loneliness in ward too but it depends upon
doctors and nurse that how they will treated him in order to make him comfortable and
not to fall depressed again during his bad time (Alligood, 2017). At a time of admission,
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due to his vision impairment Alan also needs support of one person in order to do all
activity in proper time.
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that as per case scenario, Alan faces
many problems like, he lives alone, weak eye sightedness, fell down while getting out of the
shower but did not find any serious injury. In order to cure all problem, Alan must provide
proper medication so that it will not lead to big disease. By providing proper Cognitive
Behavioural Therapy and intervention, Alan can overcome from his issues and these solutions
are also help to recover him as early as possible. Report also concluded that if Alan was admitted
to an acute ward then he may face another problem because of his high body mass index and
weak vision that may feel him awkward during a time of admission.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Alligood, M. R., 2017. Nursing Theorists and Their Work-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Bates, T. A. and et.al., 2018. Comparing Outcomes of Active Student and Observer Roles in
Nursing Simulation. Nurse Educator.
Butcher, H. K. and et.al., 2018. Nursing Interventions classification (NIC)-E-Book. Elsevier
Health Sciences.
Carpenter, M., 2018. The new managerialism and professionalism in nursing. In Health and the
Division of Labour (pp. 165-195). Routledge.
Hockenberry, M .J. and Wilson, D., 2018. Wong's nursing care of infants and children-E-book.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Holloway, I. and Galvin, K., 2016. Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. John Wiley
& Sons.
Lindquist, R., Tracy, M. F. and Snyder, M. eds., 2018. Complementary & alternative therapies
in nursing. Springer Publishing Company.
Moorhead, S. and et.al., 2018. Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC)-E-Book: Measurement
of Health Outcomes. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Smith, M. J. and Liehr, P. R. eds., 2018. Middle range theory for nursing. Springer Publishing
Company.
Online
Issues of Acute ward. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3402/qhw.v10.25828>.
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