Nursing Case Study: Challenges in Managing Diabetes and Obesity

This nursing case study details the experience of a nursing professional in Australia who handled a complex case of a patient named Peter Brown, admitted with type 2 diabetes and obesity. The case study explores the nurse's interactions with the patient, revealing his lifestyle, smoking habits, and emotional state. It emphasizes the application of nursing care standards, including safe, person-centered care and the monitoring and evaluation of care plans, referencing the NMBA standards. The nurse's personal learning from the case is highlighted, including the challenges of managing diabetes and obesity, the importance of patient communication, and the need for further knowledge regarding the association between depression and obesity. The study also discusses the use of glucose monitoring and the role of dieticians and diabetes experts in patient care, concluding with reflections on the learning gained from this case and its implications for future practice.

Running head: NURSING CASE STUDY
Nursing Case Study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Personal Experience
I am working as nursing professional in a hospital of Australia. As a part of my
profession, I have handled many patients. Recently I handled a very complicated case of a
patient named Peter Brown. He was admitted to the hospital’s emergency department with
the problem of diabetes type 2 and obesity. He had almost 105 kg body weight. The GP of
Peter had recommended him to the hospital administration as he had high level of blood
sugar, increased hunger problem. After the admission, he was very much quiet in nature and
he did not talk to any one at all. I as a nurse professional had to talk with him so that I can
understand his situation. After two days of admission he first talked with me in a well
manner. However, he only shared a few basic information such as his name, his profession,
his house etc. On the very next day, again I went to him and we had a long conversation. I
came to know that he was a regular smoker and almost smoked 15 cigarettes in a day. He
also shared that, sue to his overweight, he could not even perform his activities of daily life
and he also lost his job. He lived alone in his house as his two daughters visited him rarely.
He was also isolated from the community and his neighbours. I realized that he had no
motivation at all about his life and he lost his hope for losing weight. He was very sad for his
daughters as they did not come to him.
Nursing Care Standards
The concept of caring is very crucial in the nursing profession and it is defined as a
moral idea of nursing in which the nursing personnel is responsible for the enhancement of
protection and maintenance of human dignity (Littlewood, 2015). The Watson’s theory of
caring also suggests that, the human care includes knowledge of care, human values,
commitment of providing care, caring actions and its results. It is believed that, all of the
human care is associated with the subjective human responses regarding illness, self-

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knowledge about the disease. Hence, the value of caring is completely related to the nurses
who are providing care to the persons. Watson also mentioned that, the emotion of care and
love are the two most important things in the care processes of the nurses. Watson also stated
that, the actual growth of the human care relationship is buried in the concept of mental and
physical health growth and in discovering the meaning of life (Blasdell, 2017).
From the nursing standard code of NMBA nursing standard code, the nursing
personnel may use the standard 1 of nursing standards and the standard 7 of NMBA care
standard. In the Standard 1, the nurse will provide safe, person centred quality nursing care
that comprised of analysing the present signs and symptoms of the patient and as per the
requirement the nurse should take steps. Along with this, the nurse should document each
and every assessments related to the patient and make plan and take decisions according to
that plan as well. In addition, the nurse will also contribute to the improvement of the care of
the patient (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016). In this case, the nurse will
make plan for managing the diabetes and obesity of the patient and will apply the knowledge
of care in while providing care to that patient. Not only this, the nurse also has to make a plan
for this complicated situation of patient so that the nurse can manage obesity and diabetes
simultaneously. In the Standard 7 of practice the nurse will monitor and evaluate the practice
in order check the progress of the in the health condition of the patient. However, if it is
observed that, the plan is not working well, then the nurse will change the care plan as per the
previous evolution and a revise care plan will be made by the nurses as well. After making
the new plan the nurse will again evaluate the effectiveness of the new plan (Nursing and
Midwifery Board of Australia, 2016). Hence, in this case study, it is observed that, Peter has
complicated condition of diabetes and obesity simultaneously. At first the nurse should made
care plan for managing diabetes of Peter. In this, condition, the nurse may take help of a
diabetes expert and the expert will make medication plan for Peter. In addition, for managing

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the obesity issue, the nurse may take the help of dietician so that Peter can also restrict his
eating behaviour and it will help in managing its diabetes. After implementing plans, the
nurse will evaluate the plan of Peter whether there is any changes or not. However, if
changes are detected in the health of Peter in a positive manner, the nurse should then follow
the previous plan of action. Therefore, in case of failure of this plan, the nurse will think
another alternatives.
Image 1- Nurse is
using glucose
monitoring system
(Nursing and
Midwifery Board of
Australia, 2016).
Personal Learning from the Case Study
Like other case studies of my professional life, this case study also help me to gather
knowledge. Therefore, I can say that, firstly this case study teach me the process of handling
immense pressure situation. To be very honest, in my short carrier, I never had handled such
conditions and this case of Peter give me the opportunity of handling pressure situation in a
very well manner. Along with this, I came to know that, there is a serious relationship in
between the diabetes and obesity. Due to, his obesity, Peter seldom did any work and that
resulted in lower glucose metabolism in his body. This higher amount of glucose has become
one of the contributive factor in high blood glucose level of Peter. In addition, I also know

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about the relation of obesity and blood glucose level of the patient. In the image, it is seen
that, the nurse is measuring the blood glucose level of the patients by using the glucometer.
Hence, I can also use this technique in case of Peter as he also had the problem of high blood
glucose level . So, by using this technique I can monitor the blood glucose level of Peter and
it is the part of the evaluation process of my duty. Hence, this will help me in evaluating the
effectiveness of current plan of care of this particular. Along with this, by talking with him I
collected information about his past life and I also learnt this technique from this case study
as in my previous cases I never faced such situations. From his information I also realized
that the patient is facing depression and I took action as per his condition. However, I also
identified that I had a few knowledge gap. I identified that, I have not enough knowledge
about the association of depression and obesity. However, I was a little confused about the
association of this two, hence I did not plan anything for the management of depression of the
patient. Therefore it may happen that, if I took opinion from a counsellor, the management of
the condition might be a little easy. So I need to gather knowledge about that fact. In
addition to this, I also did not use the anthropometric measurements in this case study and as
a result I failed to know about the effectiveness of the diet plan of Peter. In conclusion, it can
be said that, this case study gave me a lot of learning and this help me in future for handling
such situations.

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References
Blasdell, D., N. (2017). The Meaning of Caring in Nursing Practice. International Journal of
Nursing & Clinical Practices. t 4: t 4: 238. . doi: https://doi.org/10.15344/2394-
4978/2017/238.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia ( 2016). Registered nurses STANDARDS FOR
PRACTICE. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Retrieved from-
https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/codes-guidelines-statements/professional-
standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx
Littlewood, J. (2015). Care and ambiguity: towards a concept of nursing. In Anthropology
and nursing (pp. 182-201). Retrieved from- Routledge.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317401513/chapters/10.4324/9781315681887
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