Mrs. Waldrop, who recently suffered from a mild CVA attack, is undergoing home care under the surveillance of a nurse and her daughter. To return to her home, she is supposed to get through a series of medical therapy to make sure that her mobility returns to normal. There are several issues for the nurse to face in caring for the patient so that they could aid in successful rehabilitation.
First, the planning of care of Mrs. Waldrop should heavily depend on several parts of her medical history. According to Chemweno et al., “a translation of the ‘clinical data’ to ‘operational data’ is necessary” (2016, p. 249). The review of medical systems should matter as one of the essential components. The point of focus should consist of the physical assessment, namely, the evaluation of the patient’s ability to carry out self-care tasks. It is crucial because of the residual weakness of Mrs. Waldrop’s right side since she plans on returning home after the rehabilitation.
The functional assessment findings in the case of patients like Mrs. Waldrop could include positive and negative aspects, such as the improvement or deterioration of muscle tone, strengthening or weakening of the right-side weakness. However, according to Lee et al. (2015), muscle improvement does not directly lead to the improvement of functional ability (p. 179). Thus, the factor which would allow getting Mrs. Waldrop into her own home probably is the assessment of her direct ability for independent action. Several indexes can be used for this task, among them the Katz Index and, notably, Functional Independence Measure. In the first stage of care, it is crucial for the nurse to use such tools of physical assessment as activity, pain, and communication, through direct observation. Those will give a chance to learn the initial conditions of the patient and the methods of the sequential treatment.
To sum up, Mrs. Waldrop’s condition requires a careful assessment of her physical activity and the ability to act independently to determine when she can return to her home.
References
Chemweno, P., Brackenier, L., Thijs, V., Pintelon, L., Van Horenbeek, A., & Michiels, D. (2016). Optimising the complete care pathway for cerebrovascular accident patients. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 93, 236–251.
Lee, B. K., Lim, S. H., Kim, K. H., Kim, K. J., Kim, Y. R, Chang, W. N… Hwang, B. Y. (2015). Six-month functional recovery of stroke patients: a multi-time-point study. International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, 38(2), 173–180.