Nursing Care Plan for an Elderly Patient with Recurrent Falls

[Document title]
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Table of Contents
Part A – Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 3
Medical Diagnosis.................................................................................................................................... 3
Age-related issues................................................................................................................................... 3
Preparation for procedures...................................................................................................................... 4
Privacy and Dignity.................................................................................................................................. 6
Ongoing assessment............................................................................................................................... 6
Wellness approach to health.................................................................................................................... 8
Part B – Nursing care plan........................................................................................................................... 9
3 Actual problems of John........................................................................................................................ 9
Actual Problem 1.................................................................................................................................. 9
Actual Problem 2................................................................................................................................ 12
Actual problem 3................................................................................................................................. 15
Potential problem 1............................................................................................................................. 17
Potential problem 2............................................................................................................................. 20
References................................................................................................................................................ 22

Part A – Introduction
Medical Diagnosis
John is an 84 year old man who was admitted in the hospital as he suffers from
recurrent falls due to functional and cognitive decline. John has past history of
hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus, Benign prostatic
hyperplasia, Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
Certain assessments were performed during his hospital stay which are \ assessment of
gait, balance and mobility, and muscle weakness, assessment of osteoporosis risk,
assessment of the John’s perceived functional ability and fear relating to falling,
assessment of visual and cognitive impairment and urinary incontinence assessment.
People over the age of 65 like John are at increased risk of falls in home settings as
well as outside. When he suffers from an incident of fall, it is linked with other distress
such as mild to severe pain and injury depending upon the severity of fall. He can also
experience loss of confidence, compromise in his independence and declined mortality.
Age-related issues
John is 84 year old and the age will affect his ability to meet various activities of daily
living needs such as:

 Decision-making: Due to the dementia his judgment gets hampered which will
lead to poor decision-making which will affect the minor to major activities of daily
life such as bathing, choosing outfits, etc. (Heerema, 2018).
 Freedom of movement: As John’s age increases, muscles in his body are
gradually replaced by fibrous tissue. Specifically the muscles of upper and lower
extremities become flabby and weak which makes an individual inactive. In
addition, with age bones get brittle, loss of bone is seen due to reduced bone
density, which leads to increased risk of fractures. The injury from even a minor
trauma can increase risk and prevalence of osteoporosis. Further, restriction of
joint mobility, appearance of spurs and points on bone ends, limits the range of
motion and increases the frequency and intensity of joint pain. Changes in gait
with person’s increasing age is also seen because of the structural and postural
changes. Overall due to all these changes John’s mobility is affected.
 Memory: With increasing age of John, his speed of processing sensory
information gets slower. Changes in central as well as peripheral nervous system
lead to this. Due to changes in storage and retrieval of information, John would not
be slowed down in performing various tasks of daily living. Further due to memory
issues, the chances of redundancy or duplication of tasks also increases (Williams,
2016).
Preparation for procedures