Home Care Observation

Name:__ _____________

Home Care Observation Assignment

One week this quarter you will have the opportunity to observe nursing care of a patient in their home, via Accurate Home Care. Prior to this experience you needed to complete the 1 day orientation with Accurate Home Care at Rasmussen.  The first part of this assignment is reflecting on your experience with your home care observations. Please answer the following questions.

1. What of your experience surprised you the most?

What surprised me the most about this experience was the fact that the client very rarely goes out of his home environment even when he has his health care provider visits, his provider will usually make home visits to ensure his health and well-being.   I am truly inspired by the client’s family, especially his mother as she has seven children and is very dedicated to each and every one of her family members and takes very good care and loves each and every one of them dearly.

1. What were the patient’s main issues that you observed?

The client was born with Shone’s syndrome and when he went through corrective surgery after birth, he suffered a myocardial infarction.  The myocardial infarction caused the client to be without oxygen to his brain for several minutes causing terminal brain injury.  He was also born with cystic fibrosis and suffers over 50 seizures daily.  Currently his main issues are mainly respiratory, he receives approximately 15 nebulizer and 2 vest (shaker) treatments daily and is suctioned constantly to ensure a patent airway.

1. Do you feel the patient’s plan of care needs to be altered at all from what you saw? Do you have any ideas of interventions that should be added or removed, or issues that weren’t addressed?

I believe the interventions and plan of care that the client is receiving is conducive to the client’s health and happiness.  The client seems very happy and well taken care of.  He doesn’t seem to be experiencing any negative conditions from the interventions or cares that he is receiving.

1. Would you feel comfortable caring for patients in this setting?

I would definitely feel comfortable caring for patients in this setting.  I would just want to make sure that I had the proper training and know what treatments, medications, and cares that are required to keep the client healthy and happy.

1. What did you learn about home care that you did not know before?

Everything that I learned at this rotation today was new for me.  I have not worked in the health care field, as I have just decided to change my career.  I knew that with technology that the care that can be provided at home has been expanded greatly, but I was very impressed with the care that the RN provided to this client especially with the amount and types of treatments that he required throughout the day and night.

Home Care- Plan of Care

For this part of the assignment, please fill out the following Nursing Care Plan based on what you observed during your Home Care clinical day.

Nursing Observations and Assessments

List at least 3 significant findings for this patient.  (list abnormal assessments, current problems or risk factors you observed in this patient)

A. _Risk of impaired gas exchange due to Shone’s syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis.__________________

B. _Muscle Atrophy and weakness due to multiple seizure activity._____________________________

C._ Periods of ineffective breathing due to Cystic Fibrosis._____________________________________

                                 Nursing Diagnosis