Case study
Mr John Smith is a 72-year-old man who identifies as being Indigenous and was admitted into the medical ward three days ago with a diagnosis of pneumonia. John lives alone and is now finding it hard to perform activities of daily living due to his worsening congestive heart failure. John requests to see a social worker as he requires home help, an occupational therapist for home modifications, someone to help him quit smoking and drinking alcohol and would also like to see a physiotherapist who has not seen him for chest physiotherapy despite the doctor’s orders. John adds that he had made these requests to the medical ward Nurse Unit Manager and the nurse who looked after him in the morning to no avail. John informs you that no one has explained to him what his plan of treatment is. John says that he has not heard from his son and would like you to inform his son that he is in the hospital. John states that he is feeling worse today than when he was first admitted into the hospital.
You perform a comprehensive patient assessment with the findings as stated below:
• Alert and oriented, GCS 15/15
• Patient able to speak in full sentences
• Productive cough with greenish sputum
• Patient only tolerating a small amounts of food and fluids
• Vital observations:
o Respiratory rate: 24 cycles/minute
o Oxygen saturation: 93% on oxygen 3litres via nasal prongs
o Heart rate: 118 beats per minute
o Blood pressure: 164/90
o Temperature: 38 degrees celsius
Past medical history: congestive heart failure, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia.
Social history: Widower with one grown son who lives about 800 kilometres away from the patient. Smokes 20 cigarettes per day and has a bottle of wine every day.
Medications: perindopril 5milligrams, frusemide 20milligrams, metoprolol 25milligrams and atorvastatin 40milligrams.
Allergies: Dairy products - severe diarrhoea and vomiting
The assessment task must adhere to the following format:
• Introduction
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• References
For question 2 and 3, first person pronouns are allowed.
While sub-headings can be used to structure this assessment, tables and dot points are not permitted. A minimum of five (5) credible and scholarly sources should be used to support your work.
Assessment 3
Inter-professional Communication: Case analysis
Value: 50%
Due Date:
Return Date:
Length: 1500 words
Submission method options: EASTS (online)
Task
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This assessment task requires you to analyse and discuss the Case Study provided on the NRS121 Interact2 site.
The Case Study is located on the left hand side navigation bar under the subheading Assessment Resources.
Your Case Study analysis should address the following questions:
- Identify at least one poor inter-professional or intra-professional communication technique or strategy, within the context of the case study, and discuss how this could potentially impact patient care.
- Using the ISBAR (Identify, Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation) format, outline how you would verbally execute a clinical handover to one relevant multidisciplinary team member identified within the context of this case study. You must clearly demonstrate how you would exactly apply the ISBAR acronym in your clinical handover.
- Reflect on your own interpersonal attributes and communication skills. Using appropriate examples, discuss how you would apply your own interpersonal attributes and communication skills to establish and maintain effective leadership and team work in your future clinical nursing practice.