Question

PN 105 Fundamentals of Nursing I Discharging a Patient with New Medications Ms. Anna Pei, a 64-ear-old female, who immigrated to the United States 20 years ago is being discharged in three days. She has been a widow of three years; her husband passed away in the hospital in which she has been admitted. She has some command of the English language but has been a housewife and has very little exposure to the culture of westerm medicine. Her youngest daughter was educated in the United States and is the most aculturalized of her three children. She has been seeing a healer from her own country as well as Dr. Mark Miller and combined both practices of Eastern and Western medicine. She was admitted with a new diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus Type II. Her previous history includes hypothyroidism, osteoporosis, hypertension not stable, gout, and general debilitation." Her admission weight is 90 pounds; height 5'2". T. 97.8, P 64 and irregular, R 24 and regular, B/P 162/136, 02 sats 92. Overall appearance is one of general debility and appears physically older than her age. She does speak English but there are long pauses between your asking the question and her verbal response. You are responsible for discharging her with her medications and ensuring she understands what the medications are, when to take the medication, observing for side effects and knowing when to call the physician. Her discharge medications include: Synthroid 100 mcg by mouth in the morning before food for Hypothyroidism Lisinopril 10 mg one tablet by mouth in the morning and one at night. For Hypertension Metformin 500 mg one tablet by mouth in the moming before breakfast and one tablet in the evening before supper. (New Medication) for new onset Diabetes Mellitus Type II Vitamin B-12 500mg daily for pernicious anemia. Allopurinol 100 mg by mouth daily with food for gout Fosamax 70 mg by mouth weekly on Sunday morning for osteoporosis She is to return to the physician in one month for a follow-up visit. Before her return she is to have the following laboratory studies done 5 days before her physician appointment: T3, T4, TSH Fasting Blood Sugar Vitamin D levell Calcium B-12 Uric acid

Answer 1

As the patient is migrated and also she has a little command on English ,it would a challenging task to make her understand the discharge summary about the medications to be taken , warning signs to return the physician , follow ups etc . To deal with this the nurse must use the following methods :-

- use of a translator to make her understand the discharge summary .

- using od pictorial discription about the timingi of medication by making stars , sun ,moon , frequency of medication by drawing number of circles representing the number of times to be taken etc

- making her youngest daughter understand about the discharge summary

- This method is highly advanced if possible use of their native language in written form while making the discharge summary .