Living with a Life-Long Condition: Case Study and Nursing Care Needs

Task 1: Introduction of the Patient and their Condition

In this assessment you are asked to interview a person diagnosed with a life-long condition. The purpose of this interview is to gain an appreciation of how living with a life-long condition has affected their life, lifestyle and that of their family/whanau.  The person you select for this case study may be a friend, a colleague, or someone in your family, although NOT an immediate family member e.g. parent, sibling or child whom you are providing direct care for. Check with your lecturer if you are unsure.

Provide your interviewee with the approved information sheet and consent form (available only from lecturer). Your interviewee must be prepared to provide some initial information and sign the consent form prior to the interview taking place.  It is expected that you will maintain the strictest confidentiality relating to personal details of the person, and health care professionals or institutions involved in their care at all times.  Your portfolio will not be marked if a signed consent form from the person you have interviewed is not attached to your portfolio and/or confidentiality is not maintained. Her hobbies include listening to music and playing sports. Jenifer enjoys her work. Now her activities are limited due to her disease condition Diabetes type 1. She was diagnosed with this disease when she was 8 years old. She cared of her diabetes disease condition till her teenager and staying with her parents. Then after 6-7 years she didn’t care for her disease condition. She is a smoker. She doesn’t care her diet. It affects her sleep. So, it affected her vision, her mood, and she had low immunity – so she has low immunity and she gets illness like flu.

So, diabetes has caused her to spend numerous days and nights in hospital, resulting in missed work/study/sports/events. So, this affected her physical, emotional, financially, socially and psychological dimensions of her health. She tried to be active and positive in her daily life.  Negotiate with your person to find a convenient time and place to conduct your interview. You will need to ensure that their privacy is maintained at all times. Your interview will take approximately one hour and you will collect your data by writing notes which will supplement the information the person has provided on the information sheet. Audio or visual recording of your person is not permitted.

Task 1: Introduce the person, their social circumstances and their lifelong condition.  Provide an overview of the current impact of the illness on the person in their daily life.

Task 2: Describe the typical onset, pathophysiology and potential illness trajectory of your person’s life-long condition, lifespan considerations, possible illness trajectory and Evaluate the impact of the lifelong condition on the patient

Task 3: Discuss the social construction of the lifelong condition 

Task 4: Identify and discuss the nursing care needs of your person including palliative care and symptom management appropriate to the present stage of their condition