Improving Patient Outcomes: A Case Study on Nursing Assessments

This case study delves into the critical aspects of patient care, focusing on a 16-year-old patient, Vanessa, who sustained a traumatic head injury. The analysis covers priority nursing assessments such as GCS, respiratory, and circulation assessments, highlighting the importance of timely and accurate monitoring. It discusses the nursing actions required to achieve care goals, including medication management and interventional strategies involving nurses and family members. Furthermore, the study analyses pain and medication management, emphasizing the role of analgesics and the significance of culturally safe and age-appropriate strategies for promoting health and wellness. The reflection on the roles, responsibilities, and scope of practice within legal and ethical frameworks underscores the need for patient safety and quality of care. The case study concludes by reinforcing the importance of multi-disciplinary collaboration and transparent reporting systems to minimize risks and improve patient outcomes. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and study resources.

Written Assessment

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
PART 1............................................................................................................................................4
STAGE 2: Three priority nursing assessments-...........................................................................4
STAGE 6: Discussion of nursing actions-...................................................................................5
PART TWO.....................................................................................................................................6
Analyse pain and medication management in the treatment of patient ......................................6
Culturally safe, age appropriate strategies for promoting health & wellness. ............................6
Reflect the role, responsibility. Scope of practice in the context of legal as well as ethical
framework in the management of patient care. ...........................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
This assignment is composed of the two parts that is part 1 and part 2. The Part 1 will discuss the
three priority assessments which must be taken by the nurses while taking acre of the patient as
well as it will cover the goals for this as well as how these goals will be completed for the better
care.
MAIN BODY
PART 1
STAGE 2: Three priority nursing assessments-
The three most important nursing assessments which must be taken by the nurses for the better
care of the patient.
GCS assessments:
When the patient was admitted to the hospital she was conscious at that time as the GCS
score was 14-15 and this means that the pain was very mild. After sometime, the nurse has not
considered the GCS assessment which was the mistake of the nurse and when the nurse went to
the patient she was unresponsive because the GCS score would have been to severe pain. The
patient was suffering from the trauma head injury and it is very important for these patients to
regularly check there GCS score so that it required the proper medications would be given
(Hatchimonji and et.al., 2021).
She was when admitted to the hospital was not having the severe head injury but the
nurse did not take the proper care of the patient and her head injury has going towards the danger
as this leads to unresponsiveness of the patient. The assessment was not performed by the nurse
and this cause the severe conditions of the patient. The register would be maintained for
recording the reading of the health tests of the patient as this will help in comparing the readings
to check the improvements of the patient.
Respiratory Assessment:
The patient when admitted in the hospital was having the rate of respiration that is 23 which
means that the respiration rate of the patients was at warning and it was to be considered by the
nurse. The nurse has not performed the respiratory assessment and this caused the respiratory
depression as there was interference between the ability of inhaling and exhaling. It is very
important for the patient to be checked for the respiratory assessments as this would have helped
the patient in eliminating the respiration problems because the patient was suffering from

traumatic brain injury head. This assessment would help in assessing the normal air entry,
effective secretion clearance as well as cardiovascular fitness (Kam and et.al., 2020). The patient
must have faced the problem of lungs fails while exchanging the carbon dioxide and the oxygen
effectively. While doing this assessment, the reading can be recorded in the register so that the
measurement of the respiratory rate can be considered and compared in the future.
Circulation assessments:
When the patients were admitted in the hospital, she was having the circulation rate as HR
68bpm this means that she was having the normal blood rate circulation. The nurse did not
perform this assessment and this caused the respiratory depression because when the individual
breaths out, the blood helps in carrying out the carbon dioxide as well as other wastes out of the
body (Brinkman, Toro and Sharma, 2021). As this was hindered in the patient because she was
not focused on the blood circulation and gradually the health of the patients was getting affected
much. It is very necessary as well as important to do the circulation assessment as this would
have helped the nurse in controlling the circulation. As she was suffering from the traumatic
brain injury and this can cause the changes in the circulation system so the nurses have to focus
on this assessment as well.
STAGE 6: Discussion of nursing actions-
Actions taken by nurses for achieving the goals of care:
It is very important for the nurses to follow the appropriate strategies which will help the patients
in achieving the goals are such as-
Focusing on assessments- The nurses must focus on the important assessments which must be
performed while taking care of the patient. As in the case of Vanessa, she was suffering from the
traumatic head injury and the nurses did not pay attention on them and this has caused death due
to the respiratory depression (DeWitt and et.al., 2018).
Proper medications- The nurse must ensure about the effects of the medicines on the health of
the patients as in this case the patient has given the PRN Oxycodone 10 mg and this has much
contributed to the health of the patients and it leads to respiratory depression.
By whom the required interventions can be taken:
The major interventions for this will be taken by the nurses only because they are the first who
will be taking care of the patients. Then comes the family members of the patients that is the
mental health of the patients gets positively affected by the family members. They should sit

with them and talk so that the patients would feel better. The other which the nurses will be
taking care of are such as taking care of the medications as well as focusing on the assessments
are the interventions which will be performed by the nurses.
Details of the chosen parameters-
The parameters which has been chosen for evaluating the situation of the patient are the
breathing that is the respiratory rate as this was the major cause of the respiratory depression
which must be given the priority by the nurses. The another is circulation rate while the patients
was admitted as this has caused the blood range as abnormal and the health was affected much
that she died due to the respiratory depression (Han, Chapman and Krawczyk, 2018). And the
other most important parameter which was considered for this was the GCS score as she when
admitted was 14-15 and then the nurse ignored. These all must be notified to the doctor for the
treatment as these were the main cause of the respiratory depression.
PART TWO
Analyse pain and medication management in the treatment of patient
Based on the given scenario, it has been focused on the Vanessa, she is 16 years old, and
experiencing of traumatic head injury after being struck. Some kind of bone injury occurs in
brain and diagnoses as temporal skill fracture. Vanessa has been faced a lot of pain and required
to give best medication facilities or services by medical professionals.
If any kind of treatment activities are performed so that it should be consider analgesics
as medication which is mainly used in the treatment of pain or management. This kind of process
can be measured the actions, indications and contraindication for all kind of medication drugs
listed before giving the best treatment of pain. This kind of activity can be performed by
professionals and identify specific demand of patient, control its chronic or accurate pain.
The management of controlling plan can be possible through medication treatment
otherwise it lead to adversely affect on psychological as well as physical level. In particularly,
the significant role of nursing staff member to use a pain relief drugs and reduce the high level of
pain, which have been faced by Vanessa during head injuries (Liampas & et.al., 2021). A clinical
based procedure such as ISBAR handover can be examined the demand of patient medication.
So, it is important to understand the risk management factors associated with health
complication. Medication management is one of the best approach in order to provide the best

treatment service because it is directly used the medicine so that they can show a positive results
or outcomes.
Culturally safe, age appropriate strategies for promoting health & wellness.
On the basis of case study, it has found that Miss Vanessa Anderson was young female and
experiencing head injury. Therefore, it is important aspect to perform medical assessment before
giving medication treatment. Usually, it has been estimated the breathing, circulation, exposure
and disability. Afterward, it has been selected right medication in order to provide best treatment
services. It is depending on the current situation of Vanessa Anderson, How she can feel a pain
and other kind of experiences. As per analysis, it has been focused on the safe and appropriate
strategies that are helping to promote health & wellness.
 Provide benefit or advantage to the patient age-wise- It is the most common strategy used
by professionals to promote health & wellness of patient. Based on the scenario, it has
been analysed that Vanessa can feel critical pain and also experiencing at first time. So, it
provide the health insurance benefits in order to manage and control chronic conditions,
accidents and life changes. In some cases, different kind of insurance benefits can go
further and promote the patient health & wellness. It offer a low cost medication
treatment and includes necessary benefits to their family members (Browne, Varcoe &
Ward, 2021). On the other hand, it also influencing towards package of advantage and
giving accurate information during wellness program. Wellness benefit can be applied on
the basis of age group and prompting the financial health condition of patient.
 Encourage participation- this kind of strategy is helping in terms of health promotion and
make sure that patient can use all essential resources with perfectly. The significant role
played by management and trained on how they can easily understand the behaviour,
illness and pain of Vanessa during treatment procedure. For example- nursing staff
members are regularly establishing a strong communication with Vanessa as patient and
identifying her health condition. This cannot be possible without use of encourage
participation strategy. In additional, it is providing the better advantage as necessary to
get facility by family members.
In above analysis, it is taking necessary steps to create or develop flexible, safe environment for
Vanessa so that she will share their experiences and idea, assumptions. In this way, it has
become easier for identifying the current health & wellness. As per given scenario, it has been

examined that professionals have followed the neurological observations to conduct session. This
will help to keep check or monitor the daily activities, identifying her unresponsive thing at some
point. This can be improved the patient wellness, especially when it comes to hospital for
treatment purpose.
Reflect the role, responsibility. Scope of practice in the context of legal as well as ethical
framework in the management of patient care.
The role of registered nurse is to provide the medicine for patient and afterwards, it has
followed the responsibility to keep monitor the effect of drugs (Hindocha & Badea, 2022).
These kind of role and responsibility was handled by nurses at hospital. So, it helps to identify
adverse effects of medication and then finding the accurate results or outcomes.
In the context of patient’s care management, the legal framework created a particular
laws that identify behaviour of patient while ethical framework should be consider a set of
norms, standards and rules governing the perception of people. In case of Miss Vanessa
Anderson study, Medical professionals have been followed the patient safety act 2005 and
establishing a systematic coordination with patient. This can help to enhance the available data to
assess, resolve patient safety, quality of service issues. From ethical perspective, medical
professionals will try to create trustworthiness in terms of physical safety, cultural and
psychological manner. The responsibility of registered nurse and other staff members to setup
ethical framework and promote level of safety or care quality (Gibelli & et. al., 2021). This kind
of process is always encouraging staff members to build multi-disciplinary collaboration or
coordination. Afterward, it facilitate the transparent reporting systems. To reduce the risk of
injury, risk management in the context of clinical setting. The ethical and legal frameworks are
influenced by different factors, establishing a strong organisational culture on the basis of
communication, mutual trust in different level. At the time of patient care, it is important to
consider legal and ethical approach in order to keep maintain a proper coordination between
patient as well as professionals.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it can be concluded that it is very necessary for the nurses to focus
on the assessments. The assignment has discussed the three priority assessments which are to be
considered as well as the strategies for avoiding such situations in the future.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Brinkman, J.E., Toro, F. and Sharma, S., 2021. Physiology, respiratory drive. In StatPearls
[Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.
Browne, A. J., Varcoe, C., & Ward, C. (2021). San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training as
an educational intervention: Promoting anti-racism and equity in health systems, policies,
and practices. The International Indigenous Policy Journal. 12(3). 1-26.
DeWitt, D.S., and et.al., 2018. Pre-clinical testing of therapies for traumatic brain injury. Journal
of neurotrauma, 35(23), pp.2737-2754.
Gibelli, F. & et. al., (2021). The Increasing Centrality of Robotic Technology in the Context of
Nursing Care: Bioethical Implications Analyzed through a Scoping Review
Approach. Journal of Healthcare Engineering, 2021.
Han, K., Chapman, S.B. and Krawczyk, D.C., 2018. Neuroplasticity of cognitive control
networks following cognitive training for chronic traumatic brain injury. NeuroImage:
Clinical, 18, pp.262-278.
Hatchimonji, J.S., and et.al., 2021. Questioning dogma: does a GCS of 8 require intubation?.
European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery, 47(6), pp.2073-2079.
Hindocha, S. & Badea, C., (2022). Moral exemplars for the virtuous machine: The clinician’s
role in ethical artificial intelligence for healthcare. AI and Ethics. 2(1). pp.167-175.
Kam, J.K., and et.al., 2020. Student nurses’ ethical views on responses to the severe acute
respiratory syndrome outbreak. Nursing ethics, 27(4), pp.924-934.
Liampas, A. & et.al., (2021). Pharmacological management of painful peripheral neuropathies: a
systematic review. Pain and Therapy. 10(1). 55-68.
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