PREFACE

The patient and family care study is a report written by every final year student nurse to give an

accurate and detailed account of a comprehensive individualized nursing care rendered to a

particular patient and his or her family within a specific period of time to maintain quality of

health for the patient.

The study involves interaction with the patient, his or her family, environment in which patient

lives and the health team. It forms part of the assessment of the final year student nurse designed

by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana for the legibility of the award of Registered

General Nursing Certificate by the council and a license to practice as a qualified nurse.

It entails the study of a particular disease condition, treatment and the actual nursing care

rendered to the patient to meet his or her physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs from

the time of admission through to the time of discharge, and continues with home visits, follow up

care and rehabilitation till patient fully recovers and care is terminated.

The study is aimed at building up the confidence of the student nurse to take up full

responsibilities in caring for a patient and his or her family. It provides an opportunity for the

student nurse to apply theoretical knowledge acquired to practice on clinical grounds and gives

the student some level of competence in rendering accurate nursing care using the nursing

process approach.

Finally, it helps the student nurse to develop good interpersonal relationship between the patient

and his or her family, and the community for effective health care.

For confidentiality purposes, initials of patient will be used.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I sincerely thank the Almighty God for granting me the grace and strength throughout the period

of this care study.

My special thanks also goes to my patient Miss G.B and her family for their cooperation and

understanding throughout our interaction.

I further wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to the entire nursing, medical and other health

staff of the children’s Unit of the Ghana Police Hospital for their assistance in writing this

script.

Many thanks also goes to Principal Nursing Tutor Joe Virtue Adae my supervisor for his

direction and guidance throughout the study period and the entire staff of 37 Military Hospital

Nursing and Midwifery Training College.

I wish to also express my gratitude to the authors and publishers of the books I used for my care

study.

I dedicate this work to the entire Avornyo family for their maximum support in all situations of

my life. I really thank them a lot for their continuous and ceaseless efforts which has brought me

this far.

Finally, my appreciation goes to all who in diverse ways helped me complete this study. To God

be all the glory!

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

CONTENT PAGE

PREFACE i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

TABLE OF CONTENT iii

LIST OF TABLES v

INTRODUCTION vi

CHAPTER ONE: ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT/FAMILY 1

Patient’s Particulars 1

Patient’s Family’s Medical and Socio-Economic History 2

Patient’s Developmental History 2

Patient’s Lifestyle and Hobbies 3

Patient’s Past Medical History 3

Patient’s Present Medical History 4

Admission of Patient 5

Patient’s Concept of His Illness 8

Literature Review on the Disease Condition 9

Validation of Data 18

CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF DATA 22

Comparison of Data with Standards 20

Diagnostic Investigation 20

Causes of Patient’s Condition 23

Comparison of Clinical Features 23

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Treatment of Patient 23

Pharmacology of Drugs 25

Complication of patient’s condition 29

Patient and Family Strength 29

Patient’s health problems 30

Nursing Diagnosis 31

CHAPTER THREE: PLANNING FOR PATIENT AND FAMILY CARE 33

Objectives/Outcome Criteria 33

Nursing Care Plan 35

CHAPTER FOUR: IMPLEMENTING PATIENT/FAMILY CARE PLAN 45

Summary of Actual Nursing Care Rendered to Patient and Family 45

Preparation of Patient and Family for Discharge and Rehabilitation 54

Follow Up/Home Visits/Continuity of Care 55

CHAPTER FIVE: EVALUATION OF CARE RENDERED TO PATIENT AND

FAMILY 59

Statement of Evaluation 59

Amendment of Nursing Care 60

Termination of Care 61

SUMMARY 62

CONCLUSION 63

BIBLIOGRAPHY 64

SIGNATORIES 65

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 LIST OF TABLE

Table One: Diagnostic Investigations 21

Table Two: Comparison of Clinical Features with Literature Review 23

Table Three: Pharmacology of Drugs 25

Table Four: Nursing Care Plan 36

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 INTRODUCTION

The patient and family care study is about Miss G.B a 5 years old female diagnosed of Sickle

Cell Disease with Vaso-Occlusive Crisis which made the patient and family fearful and anxious.

My interaction with Miss G.B and her family started on July 25, 2018 at 11:00am at children

ward of the Ghana Police Hospital where she was admitted under the care of Dr. O.A. She was

admitted on the ward for five (5) days. Medical and nursing interventions were established to

restore the health and comfort of the patient and family. After a period of hospitalization, the

patient was better than she reported.

She was discharged on the 30th of July, 2018. Home visits were carried out to follow up on her

after discharge. Patient’s care was finally terminated on 5th of August, 2018. Patient and family

were highly satisfied with care rendered.

The patient and family care study is organized in five main chapters using the nursing process

approach.

 Chapter one: Discusses assessment of patient and family

 Chapter two: Describes the analysis of data collected

 Chapter three: Involves planning for patient and family care

 Chapter four: Describes the implementation of care rendered

 Chapter five: Finally talks about evaluation of the care rendered to the patient and

family, summary and conclusion. All identified problems were solved using the nursing

process approach as a guideline.

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The Nursing Process

The nursing process is a systematic and rationale method by which nurses’ plan and provide care

for patients. It is also a problem solving approach to nursing practice that leads to sound

judgment and actions. It seeks to identify a patient’s health status, actual or potential health care

problems, establish plans to meet the identified needs and to deliver specific nursing

interventions to meet those needs.

It is an approach which enables the nurse to use a comprehensive knowledge base to assess the

patient’s health status, make judicious decisions and diagnosis, plan, implement and then

evaluate appropriate nursing action. The nursing process helps the nurse to deliver quality

individualized nursing care to patient and also ensures continuity of care.

According to Kozier and Erb (2008), the nursing process is cyclical in nature and has five main

components: assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation. Assessment deals

with collecting, verifying and organizing data about a patient’s health status. Diagnosis involves

analyzing data, identifying health problems, risks and strengths and formulating diagnostic

statements. Planning involves a series of steps in which the nurse sets priorities, writes goals and

establish a written care plan designed to resolve the identified problems of the patient.

Implementation has to do with the nurse putting into action the care plan and then evaluates to

know the effectiveness of the care rendered. The components follow a logical sequence but are

closely interrelated.

As the care of nursing practice, the nursing process is the structure of nursing care. The

framework of the nursing process enables the nurse to focus on patient’s needs and applies a

broad base of nursing knowledge in an organized fashion.

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