Question

Case study #4 Nursing Informatics You are the nurse assigned to a young 32-year mother of two young children who was recently diagnosed with Chrohn’s disease. She has taken a medical leave of absence form the law firm where she works as a paralegal assistant. Although she has reported adhering to her diet and medication regimen, she has had two recent admissions to the hospital in the past month with a flare-up of her disease. She states she is using Wikipedia for her health care information and is using Aloe Vera as a supplement without consulting her healthcare provider. Using electronic tool presented in chapter 16, devise a teaching plan for this patient. Please pick at least two that would be appropriate for this patient. What website would you recommend for her to use for online information? Some things to consider when you are doing this case study: What is chrohn’s disease? What is the effect of aloe vera on the GI tract in someone with a GI disease? What web sites are reputable for the patient? What do you think her health literacy is at?

Answer 1

Nurse teaching plan for the Chrohn's disease patient:

A. Explain about the Chrohn's disease:

1. Chrohn's disease is also known as regional enteritis. It is a sub acute and chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. It extends through all layers. The most affected part is the distal ileum and colon. After the inflammation extents to the peritoneum fissures then fistulas are formed. In advance stages it gives an appearance of cobblestone and the lumen gets narrow.

2. Explain about the Chrohn's disease sign and symptoms:

Right lower quadrant abdominal pain

Diarrhea

Abdominal tenderness

Weight loss

Malnutrition

Fever

Leukocytosis

Crampy pains after having meals.

3. Explain the benefits of using aloevera:

A complementary and alternative medicine aloe vera one of the natural medicine is used to reduce the symptoms of inflammation in bowel inflammatory diseases.

1. It has anti -inflammatory property- reduces inflammation in chrohn's disease by its inhibitory effect on prostaglandins and interleukin.

2. It is an antioxidant - it delays cell damage.

3. Aloe Vera acts as a immunomodulatory and activates the macrophages to attack the foreign substances and microbes.

4. It has anti -bacterial property hence decreases inflammation caused by attack of microbes.

5. It improves digestion.

6. It has anti -ulcer property, ulcer is caused by inflammation, aloe vera reduces the prostaglandins which causes ulcer hence decreases inflammation

4. Websites reputable for patients:

Department of Health and Human Services: The principle agency for protecting the health of US citizen.

- CDC

- Everyday health

- Hardin MD

- Healthline

- Mayo clinic

- Medscape

- Medicine Net

- Medline plus

- American Cancer society

- Up to date

- Web med

- Rx list

5. Health literacy of the patient: The patient health literacy wan an average, even though she does not know the actual pathophysiology of disease she tried to collect the information but, was not aware of the websites to where to search for disease condition where actual health information was provided. Although she maintained adherence to diet and medicine regimen but she got admitted two times. Aloe Vera usage without consulting her doctor is not acceptable because there are difference a in human body and some may respond and some may over react to aloe vera. It would have caused some adverse reaction to the patient, due to reaction with the medicines she was already taking .So, better we consult our physicians before we take things yourself whether it is a natural or allopathic. Usage is Aloe Vera is good for bowel diseases but it's not scientifically proven.