Writing a case study

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Hello,

I have been out of nursing for several years and am back in school to complete my BSN. I was asked to write a case report and honestly have no idea where to start because I have never written on before. Elderly patient with hemorrhagic stroke, no advanced directives, husband wants everything done, children believe she would not want surgery. Any advice as to where to begin?

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

a case study is a nursing care plan in an essay form. it is done using the nursing process as the organizational method. it is very similar to the way doctors present a case study. you can look at the hemorrhagic stroke article on emedicine to see how the docs present: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/323120-overview

in writing this paper you go through the 5 steps of the nursing process. step #1 is assessment. assessment consists of presenting all the pertinent facts of your case that will be needed in a logical way:

  • reviewing the pathophysiology, signs and symptoms and complications of their medical condition - what the condition is, how it is diagnosed by the doctors and treated
  • reviewing the signs, symptoms and side effects of the medications/treatments ordered
  • a health history (review of systems) - how nurses do the health history
  • performing a physical exam - how nurses do the physical exam for these patients
  • assessing their adls (at minimum: bathing, dressing, mobility, eating, toileting, and grooming) - what assistance with adls will these patients need

in step #2 you will list the nursing problems (nursing diagnoses) of this patient.

step #3. . .goals of care and nursing interventions.

step #4. . .how you will initiate the care plan

step #5. . .how you will specifically determine if goals and outcomes have been met.

http://nursingcrib.com/nursing-care-plan-cerebrovascular-accident-cva/ - careplan for a cva patient (not complete)

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Thank you for the information it is very helpful!!!

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Thank you very much for this insight i too have a case study to write on a patient: a surgical patient and this information helped alot. I would follow this format and let you know the outcome. Thanks again.

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Can you help me? I cannot view the link you posted for some reason

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Specializes in Critical Care, Clinical Documentation Specialist.

Cristal Jones,

Daytonite is the one who posted that link. Unfortunately for us all, she passed away last year, so can't update it to a working link. Perhaps you can do a search for other case study posts. I haven't started NS yet, so can't be of assistance with that, but thought you should know about Daytonite.

Good luck with your case study and welcome to allnurses :)

~SD

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ohh my are you serious...i am so sorry to hear that, did you know her personally?

I would take that advise seeing that there is nothing that can be done about the situation. Thanks for the heads up though i really appreciate it and also for the welcome.

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