for Yhtomit only

Reflection notes:

What would you do differently in a similar patient evaluation? How might you improve your assessment, diagnosis, and/or plan through inter professional collaboration?

Answer:

Elderly patients with declining health poses a significant challenge for us health care providers. Frail elders are totally different from young adults because it includes the non-medical domains like functional capability. Malnutrition among elderly people are often under-recognized, underestimated, and undertreated that adversely affects the patient’s healthcare status. It is more complicated to establish as compared to young individuals because of their frailty and senescence of organs (Flaherty & Resnick, 2013). Most of our frail elder patients would only tell us their main complaint but if we assess them thoroughly using the comprehensive geriatric assessment and functional assessment tools, we would be able discover our patients deficiency in their functional, nutritional, or cognitive status. That is what happened to Mrs. FM, the last time she went to the clinic for follow-up 1 month ago, the practitioner who saw her performed the mini-nutritional and Lawton IADL assessment and was positive for malnutrition and physical dependency, but did not collaborate with the therapists, dietary and nutritionist for her required calorie intake and physical assistance. As a result, Mrs. FM started to deteriorate because of the poor nutritional intake and functional declined. There was lack of communication between the interdisciplinary team. Adequate nutrition is crucial to health maintenance, prevention of complications, and promotion of healing in all patients.  This is especially true for the elderly population.  Impairments of daily activities can affect the nutritional and hydration status of elderly patients (Holroyd-Leduc & Reddy, 2014). As a practitioner, we should be proactive and dedicated in treating our patients especially for frail elders. We should find ways on how to prevent further health problems of our elderly patients by collaborating with the interdisciplinary team. We should think of the most appropriate instrument or assessment tools that could evaluate the health status of the older adults so that we can plan, intervene appropriately, and prevent further deterioration of our patients.

As a nurse practitioner and a health care provider, we have a critical role in improving the functional status of our elderly patients by collaborating with the other team members involved in the patient’s care. We can prevent the deterioration or functional declination of our elderly patients if we collaborate most of the time with other health team members like home health nurses and other health care providers. We should ask the care giver or nurses from time to time on how was our patients doing. As a nurse practitioner, our responsibility encompasses an ongoing comprehensive assessment and coordination of care to ensure the autonomy and safety of our elderly adult patients. We have to ensure our patient’s optimal physical and psychosocial function by coordinating with the inter-professional team. We have to have a good communication skills, a clear and concise documentation, and easy access to the team to ensure our patient’s safety (Flaherty & Resnick, 2014). Early diagnosis is critical in preventing and halting the progression of the disease.

Conclusion:

(Can you add more on my conclusion… thanks )

One of the most common errors in the medical field is miscommunication. Regardless of the number of our patients or how busy we are, we have to stay focus on each and every patients. Once we committed the mistake or omitted the treatment, it might harm the patient or worsen his condition. We should remember that we are dealing with lives and trusted by our patients.

References:

Flaherty, E., & Resnick, B. (Eds.). (2014). Geriatric nursing review syllabus: A core curriculum

in advanced practice geriatric nursing (4th ed.). New York, NY: American

Geriatrics Society.

Holroyd-Leduc, J., & Reddy, M. (Eds.). (2012). Evidence-based geriatric medicine: A practical

        clinical guide. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell Publishing