Nurses have a duty to recognize risk factors

Nurses have a duty to recognize risk factors, influence and change in behavior and
lifestyle of clients. For nurses to effectively teach they have to consider the learners
age, gender, race, sexual ethnicity, religious beliefs if any, learning styles and
socioeconomic statuses. I had a patient last week, 2 days in a row who had surgery
the day before, every time I asked him if he had pain he declined. By the end of the
day when I was less busy, I stopped by to check on him and he started a
conversation on religion. He got a little comfortable and was able to tell me that
expressing pain especially to a female is a sign of weakness. We further talked about
his surgery due to Colon cancer, his father had died of colon cancer and his mother
from heart attack and how he feared he might die of colon cancer as well. We
discussed his risk factors as well his wife and 3 children who were obese, he
identified that the families diet mostly included deep fried foods but were trying to
avoid sugar and juice in their diet. He continued to say that he had thought of ways
to change the diet and work take a walk instead of watching TV since he had he
surgery because it “opened his eyes.” He finished off by saying “go get me that
pain pill.” I asked to schedule his pain medicine instead of PRN as he would not ask
for it. I let the patient do most of the talking and answer questions when he asked
keeping in mind his ethnicity and role of men/women. I was sure not to impose my
beliefs on him but be his advocate.
References
Women's Health. Health promotion and disease prevention (n.d.). Retrieved October
22, 2015, from
Institute of Medicine. (2010, October 5). Retrieved October 3, 2015, from
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Change-Advancing-Health.aspx
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Oct 22, 2015 11:11 PM
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Oscar Robleto
4 posts
Re:Topic 2 DQ 2
Effective patient’s education demand is on the rise as a result of strict Medicare
reimbursement guidelines for patient’s readmission to hospitals. Patient’s ability to
understand and comprehend discharge instruction, self-manage, home care
materials such as complications prevention, self-monitoring of vital signs, proper
diet, exercise are crucial in health-care costs in preventing hospital readmission .
Each patient education interaction should be based on an individual's educational
needs, literacy level, and cultural background and should be grounded in evidence
based principles of teaching and learning in health care. (Donaldson, 1999). Nurses
need to approach patient’s education based on patient’s capacity to access and
implement such information as intended, does the patient live in a rural or urban
area, any visual or hearing impairment? Level of education?, available resources at
home and community?