Concept Map
Nursing Care Priorities
The importance of composing individual patient plans for providing adequate nursing care has been widely recognized within recent decades (Model, 2015). A particularly significant component of nursing care planning is prioritizing, i.e. defining to which aspects of care nursing care providers should pay special attention in certain patient cases. The complications of planning have been acknowledged, especially in the area of addressing patients’ medical backgrounds and relating nursing plans for particular treatment to other health problems that a patient may have.
In the presented case of a diabetic foot ulcer, part of nursing care planning work is identifying connections among various elements of the patient’s treatments, such as pathophysiological patient experiences, causes and risk factors, and clinical manifestations (see Concept Map). Understanding the connections is a prerequisite for a comprehensive examination of the patient case.
Prioritizing nursing care providers’ courses of actions is based on a combination of a theoretical approach (nursing diagnosing) and a practical approach (nursing interventions). In Juan Carlos’ case, a particularly important intervention needed for ensuring the best heath outcomes for the patient is related to monitoring vital indicators. With the history of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, the patient requires constant attention to the blood sugar level, blood pressure, and vital signs.
Another priority that is required to ensure that these indicators are sustained at an appropriate level is associated with nutrition. Nurses should provide the patient with the necessary amounts of proteins and carbohydrates for controlling the blood glucose level (Lehne & Rosenthal, 2014). Finally, from the patient’s behavior prior to being admitted, it can be concluded that Mr. Carlos may experience difficulties accepting the need for treatment, which is why patient engagement should be among nursing care priorities, too (Graffigna, Barello, Libreri, & Bosio, 2014), to support the patient and his family during the intervention period.
References
Game, F. L., Hinchliffe, R. J., Apelqvist, J., Armstrong, D. G., Bakker, K., Hartemann, A.,…Jeffcoate, W. J. (2012). A systematic review of interventions to enhance the healing of chronic ulcers of the foot in diabetes. Diabetes / Metabolism Research and Reviews, 28(1), 119-141.
Gordon, K. A., Lebrun, E. A., Tomic-Canic, M., & Kirsner, R. S. (2012). The role of surgical debridement in healing of diabetic foot ulcers. Skinmed, 10(1), 24-26.
Graffigna, G., Barello, S., Libreri, C., & Bosio, C. A. (2014). How to engage type-2 diabetic patients in their own health management: Implications for clinical practice. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 648-662.
Karch, A. M. (2017). Focus on nursing pharmacology (7th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Lehne, R. A., & Rosenthal, L. (2014). Pharmacology for nursing care. Linn, MO: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Model, C. C. (2015). Standards of medical care in diabetes: 2015 abridged for primary care providers. Diabetes Care, 38(1), 1-94.