case study

[ksurette]

Your neighbor Mr. Lewis, age 76, knocks on your door. He says, Look at my left foot. It is very swollen. I wore new shoes yesterday that felt tight. Now, I can hardly get any shoe on this foot. There is a tender area on the top of my foot. I think something is wrong. Can you help me?” You help him in and ask him to sit down. He limps to a chair and sits down, breathing heavily. You note that he seems sad. He says he has been feeling blue since the loss of his wife several months earlier and that he gets very lonely living alone. When you look at his foot, you note an open area on the top, with a small amount of yellow drainage. Even after 20 minutes in your home, he still seems to be breathing heavily.

You identify the following problems. Prioritize them based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

1. Left foot swollen with open lesion
   
2. Lives alone
   
3. Grieving loss of wife
   
4. Difficulty breathing
   
5. Difficulty walking
   

my initial thoughts are

breathing first and foremost #4

open sore #1

walking #5

alone #2

wife#3

Your thoughts?

[windsurfer8, BSN, RN]

You are asking from "thoughts" of people you have no idea if they are 1. RNs 2. LPNs. 3. CNAs. 4. Nursing students. 5. LPN Students. 6. NPs. 7. The Big Lebowski. Just beware if you take advice from a post on a message board to base your assignment. Those "thoughts" that may sound great may be totally off base and coming from someone who is not a nurse or heck even a nurse who was a C level student.