Undergoing Medical Check-Up

When reading through Audre’s experience of having to wait three weeks to figure out if she had cancer or not, the first time, she was struggling with the uncertainty of her life. Her mortality was put front and center and she had a lot of self-reflection during this time. In The Sick Wife by Jane Kenyon you can see an example of how uncertain life is and how quickly it can change. In The Sick Wife there was a wife who is not even fifty, yet they are not able to button a button. Even when diagnosed with cancer it is not just life and death that people are uncertain of, but also the quality of life after cancer.

Within this case study I am going to use two of the Chapelhow et al. (2005) enablers to discuss and reflect on the care of a patient I have been involved with on placement over a period of 5 weeks. ‘Enablers are the essential and underpinning skills that come together to provide expert professional practice’ (Chapelhow, C et al. 2005, p.2). These include; assessment, communication, documentation, risk, professional decision making and managing uncertainty. The enablers work together to provide a holistic approach to the care of patients in health care settings. I am going to focus on and discuss two of the enablers, linking them both together, which will be assessment and communication as I believe these two enablers can be related most to my patient.

This made me think about what I would do if my mother died. I believe I would probably be very sad, but I would also keep moving in life. I can’t just stop what I am doing because someone has died -- my aunt’s death already taught me that. Everyone has to go sometime; that time will come sooner or later -- it’s inevitable. Starting anew every time someone close dies is a bad idea, because one will never get anything done that way. (84

Research Report: Review of the Literature on Anticipated vs. Unanticipated Death and their Corresponding Coping Skills

Unfortunately, this is the case for the remaining survivors in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. They do not know what the next day will bring, or even if they will live long enough to see it. For the main characters of The Road, i.e. a man and his boy, their entire life is full of uncertainty and actions taken due to fear of this uncertainty. The man asks

At the present time, the patient has two of the risk factors for heart disease, genetic predisposition, and obesity. The first risk factor, genetic disposition, is non-modifiable, however, the second, obesity, is a modifiable risk factor. The nursing diagnosis that can be applied in this situation is imbalanced nutrition: more that body requirements, evidenced by weight is more than 20% over ideal for height and frame, triceps skinfold >25mm in women and, sedentary lifestyle. The desired outcome for this individual is to demonstrate a change in eating patterns to attain desirable body weight with optimal maintenance of health, as well as to initiate and maintain an individually appropriate exercise program. Nursing interventions for this client should be (1) determine client’s desire to lose weight, (2) review usual daily caloric intake and dietary choices, (3) establish a realistic weight-reduction plan with the client, (4) encourage client to maintain a food diary that includes when and where eating takes place and the circumstances and feelings around which the food was eaten, and (5) refer to dietitian or weight management program (Doenges, Moorhouse, & Murr,

How can one possibly prepare for the inevitability of death an When it comes to the topic of death, most people avoid discussing it and pretend that life will continue forever. They refrain from They refrain from planning for it or realizing that it will happen at one point or another. Time is a constraint. People tell themselves that they will achieve something in a certain amount of time which isn’t true because time will truly limit them. Most people do not achieve their dreams because they do not account for death. Instead of living in the moment, they just carefully continue their plans. There is always tension between planning for the future and just living in the pure moment. No one can know when they will cease to exist and many

Employees should arrive to work a little earlier than the patients to get the office completely prepared for the day.

Throughout life we, as humans, are forced to deal with many aspects of death, whether it be losing

One problem is most people think “they are going to just up and die. That’s like 10 percent of people now,” she says. This means that most of us will end up needing care provided by others at some point, like it or not. It’s the best of all worlds when you are willing to broach it before the crisis, Gail says. “What it brings up if you wait is more fear. Death is undergirding everything to talk about.”

We all know that our journey will end in death. Yet, most of us do not have any plans in place

It’s assumed that people have knowledge of what is appropriate planning for life after death, but nobody is ever prepared; and that is why preplanning is necessary. Death and dying is a part of life nobody likes to discuss, plain and simple, it makes us uncomfortable. This is a major contributor to why no one plans ahead. Nobody likes to think about death, it isn’t a pleasant thought to most of us. However, unfortunately, in our lifetime, avoiding a funeral is inevitable.

Death comes when we least expect it, and when it does arrive, we should posses no regrets. We should

Great post. I agree with the findings of your assessment. Nutritional status is the balance between a patient’s current nutritional supply and demand. I would like to include some nutritional assessments for the two patients for this discussion. Mr. H has not eaten significant calories since the operation (4 days), has trouble chewing due to poor dentition, appears depressed, has lost 8 pounds since admission, history of a 10 pound weight loss in the last month. Laboratory data include prealbumin level of 10.4g/d l( normal is 16.4-38g/dl), an albumin level of 2.9g/dl( normal is 3.5-5g/dl), and hypoactive bowel sounds, which signifies that intestinal activity has slowed down. In the critical care area, patients have special nutritional needs because the stress of their complex illness increases their metabolic rate and nutritional needs, and decrease mobilization which results in muscle atrophy. In addition, Mr. J is an elderly patient. He is at higher risk for altered nutrition due to his history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which affects his appetite & also his admitting diagnosis;

A long time ago I didn't know what I was going to make of my future. At that time I had commitents to worry about alongisde everything that was going on in my life. These unexpectedly turned into issues and affected me mentally. Infact, I was unaware that I was suffering because I'd convinced myself that everything was fine. Although, it was the fact that I was oblivious to what happened that contradicted that. Even when someone dies, life goes on.