Writing a paper

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I have no idea what to write. I am going into second year nursing and never worked with a stroke patient. I have to write about

Nuring care for rehabilitation of a ischmic stroke with motor impairment

It cannot talk about Physical therapies job or occupational therapies. Just what the nurse will do with the patient for rehabilitation.

Need as much help as possible writing papers is not a strong point for me. I just don't know how to think like a nurse yet. I need experience and that will take time.

If anyone can help me that would be great!!!

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Just stop and back up a bit. Think about the patient...not just the diagnosis.

What problems would a patient with motor impairment face?

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Specializes in Multiple.

Think about the physical social and psychological problems this patient will have and what interventions you as a nurse can help with. The patient may have some dysphasia, dysphagia, lack of confidence, poor skills in activities of daily living, possibly continence issues, not to mention depression! Also, what contributing factors might there have been for this diagnosis - raised blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking etc etc - all these can be helped by nurses too

Please let us know how you get on...

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Specializes in 4 years of nursing school.

My nursing school has a focus for our papers to include Transcultural nursing. Nursing care of a specific ethnic group in America.

I would also suggest some community resources available for the client outside of the hospital/rehab setting, etc...Support groups, Transportation, Meals, household bill assistence.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Dennis

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Specializes in Staff nurse.

...lie on your bed and think of how it would feel if you couldn't move one of your sides due to a stroke, couldn't talk, move, eat, go to the bathroom by yourself, scratch your nose if it itched, etc. That will help you think like the pt. you are nursing.

...go to your nursing school library or even public library and get a tape out about living with a stroke, rehab, caregiving of stroke patient. Write your thoughts in a notebook... This will also help you. Before you know it you will have something to work with.

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

well, the way i see this, the paper is a informal introduction to the nursing process and critical thinking without actually having to write a care plan. actually this would be a case study. the way i think i would organize this paper would be to describe what an ischemic stroke is and give a little about the pathophysiology of it. discuss the kinds of motor impairments that occur with this kind of stroke. in essence, those motor impairments would come to light if you did a physical assessment of the patient not knowing anything about their medical condition anyway. assessment is the first step of the nursing process. each one of those impairments is something that not only the doctors, but we nurses can help the patient with. the doctors will have their own "thing", physical therapists have their own "thing", speech therapists have their own "thing" and we nurses have our own "thing" we can do. what you are being asked to do is to write about what we nurses can do for these motor impairments that do not require a doctor's order, the help of the physical therapist or speech therapist, but things we do all on our own based upon nursing principles. many of them will involve helping the patient achieve their adls (activities of daily living).

for example, if the patient is paralyzed on the right side and can only move the left arm, you, as a nurse are going to make sure that the bedside table and call bell are placed near the patient's left arm which he has use of. does that make sense to you? that is a simple illustration of an independent nursing intervention and action. you don't need a doctor's order to do that, nor does the physical therapist actually come up and move the bedside table for you. the nurse does this. it is based up you knowledge of the disease process and how it has affected the patient and, basically, common sense.

you've got some reading and exploring to do, kiddo! i would explore consumer websites particularly on family help needed to care for stroke patients because what a nurse can do for a patient is what you are going to ultimately teach to the family. i put together some web sites for you to explore.

have fun! you might want to post these kinds of questions on one of the nursing student forums in order to get better responses. click on the "students" tab above to get a listing and links to them.

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