Nursing Care Plan for Miss Violet Paterson

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

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NURSING
Task 1: Consider the patient
While preparing care plan for Miss Violet Paterson the first thing that must be taken
under consideration is her osteoarthritis and her residence that is located in third floor that has
no access to lift. So while preparing the care plan for Miss Violet Paterson, importance must
be given for the arrangements of the home help in order to conduct outdoor activities like
grocery shopping. Moreover, since Miss Violet Paterson is experiencing problem in
conducting her daily living activities use of aged care services in order to ascertain healthy
living while at home can also be considered. The home help or a residential care nurse will
help Miss Violet Paterson to accomplish her daily living activities like bathing or showering,
meal preparation, changing or dressing, walking or going to washroom and other
maintenance of basic health and hygiene. Miss Violet Paterson has no extended family and
her only companion is cat so a daily help who is trained in managing pets must also be
appointment. Hodgson et al. (2015) reported that ensuring proper health and well-being of the
pets helps in improving the mental health of owner. Miss Paterson also has hypertension and
was admitted with Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI). So weekly checking of the vital signs
under the assistance of the local community health nurses must also be taken under
considerations in order to avoid the unwanted medical emergencies. The implementation of
telemedicine under the supervision of trained triage nurses might be helpful to reduce
unwanted hospitalization. While arranging home help and other residential care nurses in
order to assist activities of daily living (ADLs) of Miss Violet Paterson, assistance will be
taken from the Commonwealth Home Support Programme by the Aging and Aged Care
Service by the Australian Government (Australian Government Department of Health, 2019).
This is an Australian government subsidised program will be to provide cost-effective and
reliable solution to Miss Violet Paterson.
Task 2: Nursing assessments
Nursing Assessment 1: Assessment of Pain
According to Katz et al. (2018), older adults who are suffering from osteoarthritis
(OA) described pain as the significant symptom of OA. In spite of having an advance therapy
and interventions for OA, older adults continue to have significant sensation of pain in the
joint. Analysis of the level or the severity of pain among the older adults with OA will help in
the procurement of the patient-centered care plan. Miss Violet Paterson is 77-year old and is

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NURSING
suffering from longstanding osteoarthritis. The case study also highlights that over the last
few months the arthritic pain has increased significantly. Thus in order to procure a person-
centered care plan for the effective management of OA, proper assessment of pain is
important. The pain assessment will be done with the help of the Visual Analog Pain Scales
(VAS). The VAS uses the perception or the sensation of the patient in order to access the
level of pain. Both vertical and horizontal scales and scales that have equally spaced lines
with indication for the mild to moderate to severe pain is used for the self-assessment of pain.
Proper assistance from the nursing professionals is important for the patients who are using
the VAS for the first time. The standard VAS is a 10 cm scale with border on each side and
the left side is marker “0” and indicates no pain at all increase in the pain scare indicates the
increase in the severity of pain (Reid, Eccleston & Pillemer, 2015).
Nursing Assessment 2: Fall Risk Assessment
According to Phelan et al. (2016), older adults who are suffering from chronic pain in
joints are vulnerable in encountering accidental falls. The risks of accidental-falls further
increase if they stay alone like that of Miss Violet Paterson. Phelan et al. (2015) reports that
falls occur more often with increase in age. Other risks of fall among the older adults include
acute illness, sensory deficits, cognitive impairment, gait, strength or balance deficits, alcohol
abuse, lack of support from caregivers, problematic footwear, and affect of medication and
inappropriate arrangements of furniture. In case of Miss Violet Paterson the chances of
accidental fall are high, she is suffering from OA, lives alone and have acute illness that is
AMI. Accidental fall results in fatal injuries and the community dwelling older adult who are
over 65-year of age are more prone to accidental fall related injury. The fatal injuries further
hamper the activities of daily living and at the same time hamper the health-related well-
being. The fall assessment for Miss Violet Paterson can be undertaken by assessment of the
history of the previous fall and by medication taken by Miss Violet Paterson and the severity
of the medication in increasing the tendency of accidental fall. Medications like
antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedatives, benzodiazepines, anti-hypertensive, non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) and diuretics increase the chance of accidental fall
among the older adults. Miss Violet Paterson has history of hypertension and thus anti-
hypertensive medication can induce accidental fall. The history of fall and medication
management will be ascertain with the help of self-reported questionnaire. The physical
examination like eye sight, hand eye co-ordination, gait balance and Musculoskeletal
examination of back and lower extremities will be done by nursing professional to ascertain