Professional Documents
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Health Promotion
Health Promotion
Cameron Yeong
April 8, 2018
I Pledge
Diagnosis
Health Promotion Assignment 2
The patient in this teaching assignment is a 76 year old female who lives by herself.
Health issues include diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and a history of falls. This patient reports
that she has gradually had more and more issues with moving around freely. The patient also
reports increased stiffness of late related to her arthritis. The patient has a long history of falls
with the earliest being in 2001 and the most recent being in late 2015. With each incident, the
patient has sustained significant injury related to advanced age and osteoporosis. For this reason,
I chose risk for injury and fall as the primary nursing diagnosis. This is especially important to
this client as her ability to perform her job as a realtor, which requires a great deal of walking, is
central to her lifestyle and sense of fulfillment. in addition, falls for older adults pose a
significant health risk. With each fall, the patient needs longer to recover and is less able to
effectively complete activities of daily living. The chance of death or permeate debilitation is
high as this patient has a number of risk factors and comorbidities. In general, falls in older
adults is the leading cause for fatal injury in that demographic. In order for the patient to
effectively minimize the risk of falls, further education is necessary. As the patient lives alone,
she will need to either ask for help from family and friends or manage on her own to keep a
Teaching
This particular patient has had a certain amount of teaching on the matter as a result of
her previous falls, but still does not practice all of the safety habits that could benefit her. For this
reason, I have decided to engage in additional teaching in order to maximize her health
outcomes. The preferred learning assessment that was preformed showed that the patient is
primarily an auditory learner. With that in mind, I have chosen to focus on description and
discussion as a primary tool, with some literature and imagery to supplement. The patient does
Health Promotion Assignment 3
keep a clean home for the most part, free of clutter that might trip her. She does however move
in unsteady and quick motions and does not always use her assistive device properly. In addition,
she does not necessarily use proper posture and focus on where she is going. The patient does
have a ramp that was installed at the entry to her house after the last fall, but she elects to use the
side entrance with stairs and struggles to use a handrail. The goal was to teach the patient better
everyday habits and have her verbalize daily skills to prevent falls. In addition, the seriousness
and reality of falls were impressed again. Using the following handouts as well as basic
conversational teaching, the patient was instructed in a number of ways to minimize her risk:
https://www.ncoa.org/resources/falls-prevention-fact-sheet/
https://www.ncoa.org/resources/fact-sheet-osteoporosis-falls-and-broken-bones/
https://www.ncoa.org/healthy-aging/falls-prevention/preventing-falls-tips-for-older-adults-and-
caregivers/take-control-of-your-health-6-steps-to-prevent-a-fall/
https://www.cdc.gov/steadi/pdf/STEADI-Brochure-CheckForSafety-508.pdf
The patient was reminded a number of times with different approaches how to use these
strategies. The patient was also given information from several studies that were to exemplify
how just one more ground level fall could impact her health. In addition to the short term
outcome of describing and demonstrating at least three fall prevention methods, a long term
outcome of remaining free of falls for the remainder of 2018 was suggested.
Evaluation
Within the timeframe, the patient was able to effectively demonstrate numerous
prevention methods such as wearing non-skid socks or shoes while ambulating, remembering to
Health Promotion Assignment 4
use her assistive device, and proper body mechanics among others. Thus far, the patient has
remained free of falls and is well on her way to meeting the long term goal. Most of the methods
implemented here were primary prevention, aimed at preventing injury. These healthy lifestyle
modifications can prevent health issues and incidents that may arise. In a sense, the evaluation
may also be secondary, or detection of issue based prevention. As a whole, this effort went well.
As with any project, additional preparation may have made the project more effective. I would
also like to have been more versed in the subject matter and have more official statistics and
tools to present to the patient. Lastly, it would have been a far different and possibly more
Summary
This assignment was an interesting one. In it I learned a great deal about myself and my
ability to teach. I also learned through the research much about what exactly a fall can do to an
older adult. I found it especially impactful as the patient was someone personally very close. In
the future, I hope to be even more capable when it comes to teaching and making plans for all
sorts of patients.
Health Promotion Assignment 5
Sources:
Kai-Huang, C., Hui-Min, H., Chun-Min, C., Herng-Chia, C., & I-Chen, L. (2017). The Long-
Term Trends of the Association Between Falls Among the Elderly in Taiwan and their
National Council On Aging. (n.d.). Falls Prevention: Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 01, 2018, from
https://www.ncoa.org/resources/falls-prevention-fact-sheet/