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Discussion Question

Gami is a 48-year-old who you discover when completing a health history is taking cinnamon to treat Type II Diabetes. She is specifically using cassia Cinnamon. You also discover that she is taking Ginseng to assist with memory. Her prescribed medications are Aricept and Coumadin.

Ms. GM is a 48-year-old who presents to your clinic to establish care. During the health history, you learn that she has a history of Type II Diabetes. When asked about prescription and non-traditional medications, she reports being prescribed Aricept, Coumadin, Cassia cinnamon for Type II Diabetes and Ginseng for memory.

1. Is there any additional subjective or objective information you need for this client? Explain.

In the case study, the additional subjective data would include the feelings, the concerns, and the perceptions pertaining to her illness. For type 2 diabetes, the questions or data needed will include the level of thirst, the nature of urination, and her vision. The objective data is the physical data observed in the cause of diagnosis (Peate, 2019). In the case study, the objective data will be like the appearance of the eyes, the skin, and breath smell.  

2. What would be your position on the Ms. GMs use of alternative supplements for her diabetes and memory? Explain and include contraindications, if any.

I would urge her to continue using the cinnamon supplements, since they are recommended for diabetes. However, I may opt for a stop if it is assessed not to have any effects on wellness. Others would be like magnesium, chromium, vitamin B-1, bitter melon, and resveratrol (healthline, n.d). I would not recommend any herbal medicine since they are not regulated by Federal Drug Administration (FDA)

3. Are there any additional test/assessments you would complete for this patient given this list of medications? Explain.

In addition to physical assessments, I would conduct glucose screening test, blood sugar tests, and the AIC test. All these are to measure the levels of sugar in the blood. For memory, the folstein mini-mental state examination, memory impairment screen, and an eight-item ascertain dementia screen would be conducted. 

4. How might your treatment plan, in terms of medications, differ for this patient? Include the class of the medication, mechanism of action, route, the half-life; how it is metabolized in and eliminated from the body; contraindications and black box warnings.

Metformin would be the first line of treatment for the patient. This will depend with the results from the A1C test. It is an oral antihyperglycemic medication meant to increase the peripheral glucose uptake. Since she is an adult, she will be initiated with 500 mg or 850 oral dose, twice a day. This will be done until the glucose levels in the blood reach a maximum. 

5. What health maintenance or preventive education is important for this client based on your choice medication/treatment?

The preventive or maintenance education for the client would include to take medication as prescribed. 

Reference

Peate, I (2019). Fundamentals of assessment and care planning for nurses. John Wiley.