Assessment 1: Diabetes Patient Concept Map
Assessment 1: Diabetes Patient Concept Map
In everyday health practice, health care providers come across patients facing different health challenges. The severity and type of the health conditions vary depending on people’s socioeconomic conditions, lifestyles, cultural beliefs, and risk factors, among other health determinants. As the situations vary, health care providers should promote patient-centered care by ensuring that the recommended interventions match the specific health needs. The patient in this case (Carole Lund) seems not to recover from gestational diabetes. Worse, she lives in a family where cultural practices dissuade patients from taking medications (insulin). This paper illustrates a concept map showing the best treatment procedures and provides a narrative on the patient needs analysis.
Patient Needs Analysis
Patients’ intervention plans should be specific to patients’ needs as much as possible. When diagnosing a patient, health care providers should collect all details possible to inform decision-making. In all cases, patient needs should be the guiding principle. One of the challenges characterizing Carole Lund’s situation is that she had gestational diabetes during pregnancy, a risk factor of type 2 diabetes later in life (Auvinen et al., 2020; McMillan et al., 2018). Gestational diabetes going beyond the pregnancy period is classified as type 2 diabetes. After pregnancy, Carole Lund should have stayed in a supportive environment to enhance recovery, which was not the case.
The patient’s situation is worsened by cultural beliefs that hamper medication. In most cases, type 2 diabetes is treated by a mix of healthy living (nutrition), active lifestyle through exercises, and medication (Forouhi et al., 2018). However, as the case study highlights, Carole Lund faces challenges in all these areas, and no aspect matches the desired health state. Her family and the elders consulted have reservations about insulin consumption. She no longer gets the necessary support to cook healthy meals and has fallen behind in active living. It is also unclear whether she will continue observing cultures resisting western medicine or she can change upon getting the correct information and sensitization. Further information in this area can improve analysis.
Value and Relevance of the Evidence
When treating a patient, it is always important to apply evidence-based strategies. Suggestions for care should come from empirical
evidence and other types of data that meet the required threshold for health research. In this case, the level of evidence should be as high as possible. One of the sources of evidence in the concept map is the case study to examine the risk factors. Cultural barriers seem to be an issue hindering the care plan. The case study also helps to analyze the key areas where the patient has been performing poorly, justifying the need for support and coping ideas. Research information used for recommending the necessary interventions comes from levels I, II, and III of research evidence. The information comes from empirical research through meta-analysis, randomized controlled trials, or randomization.
Proposed Criteria for Patient Outcome Evaluation
Health education is necessary for the current situation. Carole Lund should better understand the implications of her lifestyle and behaviors, including the risks that her child faces. A measurable criterion that can be used as the reference tool in the patient care plan is gradual improvement in the critical outcome metrics. The health plan should have weekly targets for outcomes, including a healthy eating plan, active lifestyle, medical adherence, and stable sugar levels. Weekly data should inform whether Carole is progressing as required. If not, adjustments can be made to ensure that she adopts without complicating her health. She can also be supported through coping techniques and social support to ensure that her mental state does not hinder her progress.
Patient and Family Communication Plan
Communication is a vital element in any health care plan. Families where a patient gets support should be actively involved and should understand the care plan in detail. To prevent ethical and cultural conflicts and ensure that communication is culturally sensitive, beliefs and values should be highly respected. As a result, the patient and the family should be engaged directly and respectfully without showing them how their beliefs hinder positive outcomes. The best way is to educate them on the benefits of the proposed medication and clarify any misunderstanding areas. Here, the main assumption is that the family, being of Native origin, embraces some cultural beliefs due to the ack of health-based information.
In conclusion, diabetic patients are among the at-risk population segments that need a lot of social and care support. Carole Lund is in a risky situation considering that she lacks the necessary support and has fallen behind in healthy and active living. She needs a health plan that enables her to restructure her life in a way that active and healthy living are dominant. She also needs to avoid stress and get adequate sleep. Above all, she must change her attitude towards medication and believe more in health care providers instead of family members with cultural reservations towards modern medicine.
References
Auvinen, A. M., Luiro, K., Jokelainen, J., Järvelä, I., Knip, M., Auvinen, J., & Tapanainen, J. S. (2020). Type 1 and type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes: A 23 year cohort study. Diabetologia, 63(10), 2123-2128. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-020-05215-3
Forouhi, N. G., Misra, A., Mohan, V., Taylor, R., & Yancy, W. (2018). Dietary and nutritional approaches for prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. Bmj, 361. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2234
Herath, H., Herath, R., & Wickremasinghe, R. (2017). Gestational diabetes mellitus and risk of type 2 diabetes 10 years after the index pregnancy in Sri Lankan women—A community based retrospective cohort study. PloS one, 12(6), e0179647. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179647
McMillan, B., Easton, K., Goyder, E., Delaney, B., Madhuvrata, P., Abdelgalil, R., & Mitchell, C. (2018). Reducing risk of type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes: a qualitative study to explore the potential of technology in primary care. British Journal of General Practice, 68(669), e260-e267. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp18X695297