ESSAY BRIEFING
The focus of the case study must be on the implementation and evaluation of the nursing care and include physiological, pharmacological, and psycho-sociological aspects of your care of a patient/client during one shift of duty, or single significant episode of care such as home visit, outpatient visit or similar therapeutic intervention.
You are required to:
• Demonstrate logical, coherent development in your nursing case study. You are writing the nursing care of a patient, with a condition, you are NOT writing the medical management of a condition: remember it is NURSING care.
• Include an introduction and a conclusion. Avoid a long description of what happened, seek to give why events occurred and what were the nurses trying to do.
• You may present the case as you wish, for example you may give priorities for those elements that were a challenge to you or the nurses. Use professional language, and proof read your work before submission.
• Bullet points should be avoided, however you may use subheadings.
• Avoid use of direct quotes unless they are absolutely essential and add meaning to your work.
• Provide a concise introduction to your patient and their current health status. It is in this introduction to your patient or appendix where you can refer to the assessment and planning which preceded the implementation, but keep this brief.
• Only analyse and explore needs which are relevant for the timescale covered. You may include a more detailed synopsis in appendix if relevant and you must refer to the appendix. You will not gain any marks for including an appendix.
• You must demonstrate evidence of relevant reading from academic sources and use this to support your work. DO NOT just reiterate what you read, but be critical of claims made and how this influences your thinking. For example if you are referring to a patient’s pyrexia, you must consider what the normal values are and how your management is guided by evidence.
• Consider psycho-social issues that you needed to take into account when implementing care. If you are studying to be a mental health nurse, you may wish to consider a patient/client’s behaviour and the care that you would implement in these circumstances. Consider cultural issues which may impact on your care and any pharmacological interventions required.
Case Study: 84 year old male patient deatained under Section 3 of the Mental Health act (1983) with vascular dementia, poor mobility, memory loss, aggressive behaviour, impaired vision and cellulitis of the leg.
Comments from previous marker:
What you have done well: You have clearly put much effort into the assignment and attempt to adopt a scholarly approach.
What you have not done well: You have changed the nature and focus of your assignment. However, many of the criticisms of the first submission remains. There is still very little focus or analysis of the implementation and evaluation stages of nursing care – as this is the focus of the assignment this presents a challenge to satisfy the demands of the assignment. You still primarily focus on the patient rather that nursing care. There are at times unreferenced statements and unsubstantiated assertions. Also there are times when your proofreading is not all that it should be – for example, I did not the that a ‘men mental health act’ existed. The work terminates abruptly and appears unfinished.
How to improve in future: Ensure that you first submission addresses the task set. Focus is all at this and subsequent levels.
