Nurses are the Eyes and Ears of the Multidisciplinary Team

1958 Words4 Pages

QSEN Patient Case Study

Application of Informatics

On February 11, 2014, a 64 year old female began having tingling and numbness in her right side and face, she notified family and they called 911 to dispatch an ambulance to her home. The ambulance transported her to Ellis Medicine’s emergency room on Nott Street in Schenectady. In the emergency room her main complaints and symptoms were right-side weakness, headache, nausea, and decreased level of consciousness. The symptoms were consistent with signs and symptoms of a stroke. A CAT scan and MRI show a left-sided cerebral hemorrhage. The Neuroscience team diagnosed her with Amyloid Angiopathy, a genetic disorder that causes protein to deposit on the walls of blood vessels in the brain. Deposits cause the blood vessel walls to break and crack. Blood leaks into the brain causing damage and hemorrhagic stroke (Angiopathy, 2013).

The cerebral hemorrhage occurred in the left side of the brain which caused a significant bleed and brain damage. She has expressive aphasia and right-side hemiparesis a result of the hemorrhage. The expressive aphasia created a communication barrier. I learned about who the patient was through pictures, family and use of pen, paper and the white board. I learned she worked nights full-time for Walmart, as a freight hauler, lives alone in a one story home in Schenectady, NY. Divorced with 4 grown children who are unable to assist with care. The support systems in place are coworkers and a sister from Old Forge, NY.

Key disciplines of the health care team are the neurologist, physician assistant, speech-language therapist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, social worker, and nurse.

On morning assessment, day one the Foley catheter bag w...

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... Instead Senior Care. Retrieved March 12, 2014, from http://www.homeinstead.com/334/aboutus/Pages/AboutUs.aspx

Lippincott, W. (2013). Management of Patients with Cerebrovascular Disorders. Brunner and suddarth's textbook of medical -surgical nursing 12th ed. + nursing diagnosis, (p. 1895). S.l.: Wolters Kluwer Health.

Poslawsky, I., Schuurmans, M., Lindeman, E., & Hafsteinsdóttir, T. (2010). A systematic review of nursing rehabilitation of stroke patients with aphasia. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 19(1-2), 17-32. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2009.03023

Power to End Stroke. (2013.). American Stroke Association. Retrieved March 12, 2014, from http://powertoendstroke.org/

The Joint Commission. (2014.). National Patient Safety Goals. Retrieved March 11, 2014, from http://www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/npsgs.aspx

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