Public Health Nursing Health Assessment

Question: Discuss about the Public Health Nursing for Health Assessment. Answer: Health History Assessment: Mr. A (72 yrs) is from the southern part of the India. He is staying alone in his two-storey building because his wife was expired three years ago. He doesnt want to stay with his son who is staying 50 kilometers away from his home. Mr. A, is not financially strong to have assistance for assisting activities of daily living. In his society perception of health is conservative in nature. These people dont want share their diseased state or pain to health care professionals. Before 10 years he was diagnosed diabetes, obesity and hypertension and still he is carrying these conditions. Mr. A was consuming atenolol, metformin and orlistat since some time. However, he was not consuming medication on regular basis because he is not interested in taking medicine and due to his financial condition he cant offered to take medicine on regular basis. Because of this, his condition was not improving since some time. He was practicing habit of alcohol consumption and chronic smoking since many years. He has allergies to milk products and eggs. He is not consuming other nutritious food, hence his nutritional balance is impaired. His father was also going through the same health problems and he died at the age of 46, when Mr. A was very young age. Hence Mr. A was living in very stressful condition since very young age. Upto the age of 18 he was well developed and well grown. However, after age of 18 he was on low nutritious food and also with bad habits of alcohol con sumption and smoking. Due all these factors his vital organs became impaired over the time and his health condition was deteriorated (Weber and Kelley, 2014). Recently, his vital systems were tested and following are the observations. B.P. Systolic 150 mmHg and diastolic 110 mmHg Blood sugar level 200 mg/dl Body weight 89 kg Live function test AST - 100 IU, ALT - 120 IU Forced expiratory volume (FEV1) 35 % He was complaining about the breathing problem, stomach pain, vomiting, loss of appetite, insomnia and lethargy. It has been observed that he wants to keep isolated from others and almost depressed. He made his mind that his family and society is not ready to accept him in this condition. Because he has perception that his current condition is due to his lifestyle since long time. Due to his depressed condition he is unable to remember few routine things. He is well oriented to people, however he is disoriented to time. Since Mr. A, has long history of cardiovascular complication, his cardiovascular system should be evaluated in details. Also it has been observed that and through discussion with Mr. A, it has been evident he has breathing problem in recent times, his pulmonary function test should also be performed. However, based on his symptoms and overall condition his B.P. was measured, glucose was estimated, lung and liver function test were performed. New complications diagnosed in Mr. A were chronic obstructive lung disease and alcoholic liver disease (Jensen, 2010). Learning requirements for Mr. A are: awareness about the usefulness of the medication in treating or reducing severity of his disease condition and change in lifestyle by reducing smoking, reducing alcohol consumption and taking nutritious food. Mr. A should be more socially involved so that his psychological condition can be improved and his family should take care of him because he is in need of them. Reflection: To perform health assessment of Mr. A, I interviewed him in the morning session and in very fresh environment. While interviewing Mr. A, I tried to understand his exact problems and tried to improve his moral. I tried to explain few medical terminologies to him in a very convincing way. During interaction with Mr. A, I understand that communication with the elder person with physical and psychological problems is not an easy task and we cant apply textbook and classroom approaches with these people. We should have skills to interact with these people and I did it in a very convenient way. Initially Mr. A was not ready to open up about his health conditions may be due to his community is following this practice since long time. I explained him about the importance of good health and health care professional are for the wellbeing of the patients. Then, he agreed to describe his condition. After that, it was an easy task for me to collect the required information about his health status . After starting discussion, I experienced unanticipated challenge of not getting exact information because of his depressed condition and not memorizing few things. However, I applied all my skills and got all the information from him. I would use writing media for getting more information next time as he is unable to express few aspects about his health Truglio-Londrigan and Lewenson, 2012). References: Jensen, S. (2010). Pocket Guide for Nursing Health Assessment: A Best Practice Approach. Lippincott Williams Wilkins. Truglio-Londrigan, Marie., and Lewenson, S. B. (2012). Public Health Nursing. Jones Bartlett Publishers. Weber, J. R., and Kelley, J. H. (2014). Health Assessment in Nursing. (5th Ed.). Lippincott Williams Wilkins.