NURSING ASSESSMENT: Responding to Clinical Scenarios in Practice

This presentation addresses five critical nursing assessment scenarios, simulating real-world clinical challenges. The first scenario involves a patient experiencing hypoglycemia, highlighting the importance of recognizing adverse changes and providing immediate care. The second focuses on work health and safety, emphasizing adherence to guidelines for a safe working environment. The third scenario explores managing a Muslim patient's refusal to remove her hijab before surgery, underscoring cultural sensitivity and patient advocacy. The fourth scenario involves a 12-year-old Aboriginal girl requiring emergency surgery, emphasizing the need for decisive action in the absence of parental consent. Finally, the fifth scenario addresses a mother with pneumonia and her newborn, highlighting the nurse's role in providing holistic care, including nutritional support and mental health considerations. Each scenario includes a discussion of the nurse's responsibilities, decision-making processes, and relevant references to support the approaches taken in each case.

Running head: Nursing assessment
Nursing assessment
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Authors notes:

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1. Recently a patient was admitted in the hospital complaining of feeling of
restlessness and fast heartbeat. I was asked to care for the patient an old lady and upon seeing
her I saw she was unconscious and had no major sense on what was happening. Upon
checking her diagnostic results, it was clear she was suffering from low blood sugar. She was
sweating and from her face, it seemed that she was feeling dizzy and uncomfortable. I
realised that she is in need of fast acting carbohydrate, so I got hold of glass of water and
poured sugar in it and helped to make the lady sit in her bed. The fast acting carbohydrate
helps to build sugar in the body thus minimising the symptoms of sugar deficiency (Leung et
al, 2017). Slowly she started feeling good and comfortable. It is normal for the patient to feel
weakness for some time so it is better to ensure rest to such patients. Afterwards physician
was consulted who gave her medications for controlling blood glucose. She was feeling good
after some time and then I counselled her about what to do in such situations. Glucose
candies can be kept handy all the time in her bag when she feels dizzy like this.
2 .Work health and safety consists of guidelines that ensure that the nurses or
midwives and all the hospital staffs get the benefits of working in a healthy environment
without any problem by resolving safety issues of workers. Workers health is also a major
concern like issues of overworked medical staffs and increased work load. Work health safety
programs also ensures smooth functioning of training modules (McKinney et al, 2016).
During my training in clinical practise safe work practise and wearing protective garments
and equipment was encouraged by the management. The hospital administration is committed
to ensure safe work place to us and ensured there were no risks to our safety. The
management ensured that all the safety measures are taken after cooperating with the hospital
staff. The management with the help of resources that guidelines are followed to keep the
hospital staff. In many cases there are times when the nurses are required to handle with some

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chemicals that can be hazardous. Therefore the work health and safety norms help to regulate
and manage such situations. Nurses often suffer from back injury and the safety guidelines
refers to classes in body mechanics and safe lifting techniques, which are taught during the
training. Radiation and chemical exposure is also common in nursing field. The work health
and safety norms suggest only the use of permissible limits of hazardous chemicals.
3.It is very important to change the existing clothes before undergoing any surgery for
cleanliness and to prevent infection. This is important for both the nurses or surgeons and the
patient. A Muslim woman was not willing to change her hijab who had to undergo a surgery
for removing the retained products of conception. The Muslim women was very conventional
in her thoughts and said that removing the hijab for the operation was against her religious
ideologies. I tried to convince her by saying that all the operations are conducted in separate
dress and is mandatory for everyone otherwise she may contract infection and it would be
inconvenient also to conduct the surgery (O'Neill et al, 2015). During a D and C surgery, it is
required to lie in the back and place her legs in a stirrup. The hijab would not allow her to
move her body confidently and may come in the way of operation. She was still reluctant to
remove her hijab therefore I informed a technician to cover her head and then conduct the
surgery and ensure that the chance of infection is minimal. Normal everyday wear is not fit to
be worn in operation and chance of contamination increases.
4. Nursing needs to make important decisions during tough situations. In case of a
minor it is always advised to proceed after taking permission from the parents. In case of the
12 year old aboriginal girl there was no parents with her and she was admitted for ruptured
appendix to the hospital. To take her mothers permission and wait for her permission it would
have been late and make the situation worse. An appendix left untreated may perforate and

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the infectious material may get rampant in the abdominal cavity leading to peritonitis, which
leads to inflammation of abdominal lining, and future complications may occur. The rupture
may get worsen if kept untreated for more than 24 hours. Being a nurse and health care being
my first priority I would suggest to carry on the operation procedure after informing her
mother about the condition. The necessary documentation can be made by me for the time
being and then after the mother arrives proper information can be noted (Petersen et al,
2017). In this situation it is necessary to address the medical issue first because the delay in
time make the condition worsen in emergency cases like this. Therefore, it is best to start with
the surgical procedure and not wait for her mother.
5.In the given situation the border mother is not very much mentally coordinated and
is facing many difficult circumstances. She is not well both physically and mentally to take
care of the baby. Both the baby and the mother is in need of proper health plan and
meanwhile the baby is in need of care as the baby is also experiencing pneumonia. As the
mother is not well to take care of her baby’s needs me being a nurse must intervene and take
care of the baby’s health. Breastfeeding mothers must be very careful about their diet as it
directly influences the baby’s health and immunity (Spry, 2016). After some days when the
mother feels good I must counsel her on the baby’s need and make her understand the
responsibilities of taking care of her baby’s health. Upon inspecting her, I realised that she
has not taken food and was hungry so it would be my responsibility to take care of her
nutrition needs and advise her to take food in regular intervals. In such situations it is
necessary to take her to psychologists who can ensure better mental care to her.

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McKinney, E. S., James, S. R., Murray, S. S., Nelson, K., & Ashwill, J. (2017). Maternal-
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O'Neill, B., Parkinson, L., Dwyer, T., & Reid-Searl, K. (2015). Nursing home nurses'
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Petersen, P., Sieloff, C., Lin, L. S., & Raph, S. J. W. (2019). Understanding the Roles,
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