Question

Johnny is an active, healthy 12-year-old boy. He is currently in sixth grade at the public middle school near his home. He lives with his father, John Sr and his younger brother Sam, who is 9. His mother passed away 7 years ago in a motor vehicle accident. Johnny’s home life has been somewhat stressful the past year or so because of his father having been cut back on hours at his job and his paychecks are barely covering the bills. Johnny tries to help with his brother Sam, but he and his little brother get into arguments as siblings often do. Johnny has had problems in school for the past 4 years. Teachers report that he has difficulty staying on task and won’t follow directions. Although he made some progress last year with his fifth-grade teacher, his grades have been consistently poor. His father tries to help him with homework after he gets home from work in the evening, but this often results in frustration and yelling from both father and son. It takes Johnny hours to complete simple assignments, often resulting in anger and a defeated attitude from Johnny. The fact that he frequently comes home from school with headaches further aggravates the situation. In addition to problems with academics, Johnny has problems with social interactions. His teachers find him to be disruptive in the classroom. During the past year, he has often been sent to the principal’s office for misbehaving. He has few friends and is a frequent target of teasing at school. Most of his time at home is spent playing video and computer games and watching TV.

1. What are the priorities of nursing care for Johnny?

2. What outcomes would be appropriate for him?

3. How can the nurse advocate for a child with ADHD?

Answer 1

1.The priority nursing care for Johnny are

• Encourage the child to come out with the problems like emotions
• To provide confidence and develop the child's self esteem
• To develop the learning skills by memory training ,games
• The establish a smooth relationship between family members (father and brother)
• Helping child to build a healthy behavior
• Make sure not to hurt the child physically or emotionally

2.Some of the outcomes which can be appropriate are

• Improvement in the academic performance
• Interacting with others or developing psychosociality
• Improvement in the behavior

3.The following things can be advocated for a child are

• Creating awareness to the parent about the nature of disease and its treatment
• Helping the parent to develop strength in teaching the child as per their ability and not training or teaching on the basis is chronological age
• These child can be sensitive, so the child should not be emotionally disturbed
• The anger is common ,so provide a non stimulant aggressive environment to the child