Enhancing Patient Care: Applying Nursing Theories in a Case Study

This essay explores the application of various nursing theories and frameworks to improve patient care, focusing on the case of an aboriginal woman with diabetes. It identifies relevant theories such as patient-centered care, family-centered care, and Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, analyzing their potential benefits and drawbacks in enhancing the patient's experience. The analysis reveals gaps in the patient's care, particularly concerning the lack of patient education, dietary support, and psychological counseling following a personal loss. By applying these theories, the essay demonstrates how a more comprehensive and ethical approach, incorporating patient beliefs, family involvement, and stress reduction strategies, could significantly improve the quality of care and overall patient well-being. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of nurses adopting professional behavioral standards and strategies to ensure better healthcare experiences for all patients.

Introduction
Nurses should acquire more professional behavioural standard and strategies in order
to improve the patient care experience. The experience of a 40 years old aboriginal woman
has been chosen as the case scenario for this paper. The main goal of nurses is to improve the
safety measurements and the quality of care for each and every patient. Improving the patient
care experience can be very much helpful for the healthcare organization in getting reputation
also (Nilsen, 2015). It can be achieved by improving service and delivery processes.
However, improving it can be challenging for all the nurses as variety of patients are admitted
and each of them holds different demands (Rahaman, Holmes & Chartrand, 2017). This paper
is going to describe some relevant theories and framework in this regard and it will also
analyze the case scenario of an aboriginal woman who shared her care experience. Finally,
the paper will conclude stating how the theories and frameworks can be applied in order to
improve the patient care experience.
Identification of relevant theories and frameworks
While taking care of patients, nurses follow various theories and one of them is
patient-centred care. It is a practice of caring patients by listening, informing and involving
patients in the care practices. In this care method, the opinion of patients is preferred (Van
Humbeeck, Dillen, Piers & Van den Noortgate, 2016). In the chosen case scenario, Raelene
Ward was suffering from diabetes since her 3rd gestational period and even after years of
giving birth to child. In her case, nurses did not inform her about the reason of diabetes and
they also did not provide any exercise or diet prior giving the insulin. Informing the patients
about the detail of their disease is one of the important rules of patient-centred care. Another
approach is family-centred care in which family members are involved in the patient care
process in order to provide an extra emotional support to the patient (Reamer, 2017). In the

chosen case scenario, the patient herself was a nurse by profession and being a nurse she
stated that she also embrace family-centred care. Involving the family members such as
allowing them to visit patients anytime as per the patients’ physical condition can provide an
additional mental support to them. At the same time maintain codes of ethics in the nursing
practices are also essential for better care (Clark, 2017). When she lost her sister it was a
great loss to her and it created a huge psychological impact. During that period grief and loss
framework to support the patient was required and in this purpose, counselling of the patient
would provide an additional psychological support to overcome the grief.As per her age,
Erikson’s stages of nursing care she required mental support also (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele
& Robinson, 2018) in which the nurses should be actively and respectfully listen to her and
acknowledge her life experience. Nurses also encourage patients to participate in some
activities that have meaning for them. Some pros and cons of the theories related to nursing
can be identified. Patient and family centred care always improve the health outcomes and it
is cost-effective also as it decreases the annual number of referral visits and lowers the
number of laboratory tests ordered which in turn reduces the cost. Again the Erikson’s stage
helps to provide the additional support to control the stress. In this way the relationship
between nurses and patient becomes stronger (Clark, 2017).During the sister’s death it could
help her to get over the stress. However, application of these theories into the nursing
practices can increase the workload of the nurses and due to over stress they cannot establish
genuine therapeutic relationship with the patients easily. Sometimes, in patient-centred care,
opinion of the patients can create barrier in the treatment. Over involvement of family can
hamper the treatment procedure too (Foster, Whitehead & Maybee, 2016).
Analysis of the communication scenario
In the case scenario, Raelene Ward was suffering from chronic diabetes and the care
she took was quite ineffective due to various reasons as it was really not a patient-centred

care. Several examples from the case scenario can be given in support of it. First of all, when
she was diagnosed with diabetes, the nurses associated in her care did not inform Raelene
about the reason of the issue. Moreover, they did not suggest any diet or exercise before
putting insulin. They directly went for the insulin. Along with that, at the very beginning of
the diagnosis of her disease, she got support from a dietician. But, during her whole treatment
process no dietician was involved. Diabetes is basically a non-curable and long-term chronic
disease which Raelene was suffering since years and it consists of compliance in medication
and management also. During this long period she was not supported by any dietician. Apart
from that, during the treatment procedure, she lost her sister which created a great negative
impact on her life. She became more stressful which was not good for a diabetic patient as it
can worsen the condition. But, she did not receive any counselling or psychological support
as a part of her care management (Nilsen, 2015). Moreover, as per her age, as she was 40
years old, the stage of generativity vs. stagnation in Erikson’s stage was appropriate for her
(Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele & Robinson, 2018). In this stage she required stress reduction
support which she did not receive. So, all these proved that the care provided to the patient
was quite ineffective in nature which requires some more efficiency as well as effectiveness.
Again, from the case scenario, it has also been found that Raelene received some
effective care as she got the support from a team of healthcare professionals during her
treatment procedure. An Endocrinologist, midwives, and the doctors were always there to
assess her when she went into antenatal. On a regular basis, the team of the healthcare experts
would see her. Even, at the beginning there was dietician also. Apart from that, there were
aboriginal staffs also present in the hospital and if any patient wanted then the aboriginal
worker would come to provide the patient some additional mental support when required,
being from the same community (American Diabetes Association, 2014). However, the care

was not as effective as it was not always patient-centred but in some cases the care provided
by the healthcare organization in her case, found to be effective.
Application of the chosen theories and frameworks
The theories of patient-centred care and other frameworks discussed could improve
the patient care process in the case of Raelene Ward. In patient-centred care, transparency is
the main rule. Patients must be informed about the decisions taken by the healthcare
providers during the treatment procedure (Reamer, 2017). Patients’ safety should be the first
priority also. In the case of Raelene, she was not informed about the reason of her diabetes.
Moreover, there was no any episode of diet and exercise prior giving the insulin to the
patient. It could be dangerous as giving insulin is very much important and it requires various
checking before giving (Fraser & Rosina, 2017). Another theory that could be incorporated in
the case scenario of Raelene was family-centred care. According to the patients’ opinion as
she was also a nurse herself, family-centred care is an important and valuable part of nursing
care in which family members are allowed in the treatment procedure of any patient to
provide an additional mental as well as emotional support (Foster, Whitehead & Maybee,
2016). If her family members were allowed in the treatment process when she was over
stressed due to the loss of her sister then it could provide her some additional mental support.
But, during that period of time she was not provided any counselling even. Moreover, ethical
codes are associated with the quality care and if nurses would be more ethical by saying the
fact or reason behind her diabetes it would be better. Again, according to Erikson’s stage for
40 years’ patients, she should be supported in order to reduce stress, whereas, she was not
provided any psychological support during the treatment (Cherry, 2017). Incorporating her
belief and value in the care plan was not found. To enable the generativity, nurses should
acknowledge the life experience of the patient also (Clark, 2017). If all these theories and

frameworks would have been implemented in the treatment then it would have provided a
better care for this patient.
Conclusion
The main thesis statement was that nurses should acquire more professional
behavioural standard and strategies to improve the patient care experience. The paper
analysed the case scenario of an aboriginal woman who took care due to her diabetes. The
care she received from the nurses was ineffective in many areas and in some cases the care
was effective also. The paper provided the theories and frameworks appropriate for nursing
care. At the end of the paper it has also been described that how the care would have been
better with the application of nursing theories and frameworks. If nurses maintain ethical
standards as well as other theories in the care process then patients will experience a better
healthcare.

References
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