Assignment: Adaptive Response

As an advanced practice nurse, you will examine patients presenting with a variety of disorders. You must, therefore, understand how the body normally functions so that you can identify when it is reacting to changes. Often, when changes occur in body systems, the body reacts with compensatory mechanisms. These compensatory mechanisms, such as adaptive responses, might be signs and symptoms of alterations or underlying disorders. In the clinical setting, you use these responses, along with other patient factors, to lead you to a diagnosis.

Consider the following scenarios:

Scenario 1:

Jennifer is a 2-year-old female who presents with her mother. Mom is concerned because Jennifer has been “running a temperature” for the last 3 days. Mom says that Jennifer is usually healthy and has no significant medical history. She was in her usual state of good health until 3 days ago when she started to get fussy, would not eat her breakfast, and would not sit still for her favorite television cartoon. Since then she has had a fever off and on, anywhere between 101oF and today’s high of 103.2oF. Mom has been giving her ibuprofen, but when the fever went up to 103.2oF today, she felt that she should come in for evaluation. A physical examination reveals a height and weight appropriate 2-year-old female who appears acutely unwell.  Her skin is hot and dry. The tympanic membranes are slightly reddened on the periphery, but otherwise normal in appearance. The throat is erythematous with 4+ tonsils and diffuse exudates. Anterior cervical nodes are readily palpable and clearly tender to touch on the left side. The child indicates that her throat hurts “a lot” and it is painful to swallow. Vital signs reveal a temperature of 102.8oF, a pulse of 128 beats per minute, and a respiratory rate of 24 beats per minute.

Scenario 2:

Jack is a 27-year-old male who presents with redness and irritation of his hands. He reports that he has never had a problem like this before, but about 2 weeks ago he noticed that both his hands seemed to be really red and flaky. He denies any discomfort, stating that sometimes they feel “a little bit hot,” but otherwise they feel fine. He does not understand why they are so red. His wife told him that he might have an allergy and he should get some steroid cream. Jack has no known allergies and no significant medical history except for recurrent ear infections as a child. He denies any traumatic injury or known exposure to irritants. He is a maintenance engineer in a newspaper building and admits that he often works with abrasive solvents and chemicals. Normally he wears protective gloves, but lately, they seem to be in short supply so sometimes he does not use them. He has exposed his hands to some of these cleaning fluids but says that it never hurt and he always washed his hands when he was finished.

Scenario 3:

Martha is a 65-year-old woman who recently retired from her job as an administrative assistant at a local hospital. Her medical history is significant for hypertension, which has been controlled for years with hydrochlorothiazide. She reports that lately, she is having a lot of trouble sleeping, she occasionally feels like she has a “racing heartbeat,” and she is losing her appetite. She emphasizes that she is not hungry like she used to be. The only significant change that has occurred later in her life is that her 87-year-old mother moved into her home a few years ago. Mom had always been healthy, but she fell down a flight of stairs and broke her hip. Her recovery was a difficult one, as she has lost a lot of mobility and independence and needs to rely on her daughter for assistance with activities of daily living. Martha says it is not the retirement she dreamed about, but she is an only child and is happy to care for her mother. Mom wakes up early in the morning, likes to bathe every day, and has always eaten 5 small meals daily. Martha has to put a lot of time into caring for her mother, so it is almost a “blessing” that Martha is sleeping and eating less. She is worried about her own health though and wants to know why, at her age, she suddenly needs less sleep.

To Prepare

• Review the three scenarios, 
• Identify the pathophysiology of the disorders presented in each of the three scenarios, including their associated alterations. Consider the adaptive responses to the alterations.
• Review the examples of “Mind Maps—Dementia, Endocarditis, and Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)” media in this week’s Learning Resources. Then select one of the disorders you identified from the scenarios. Use the examples in the media as a guide to constructing a mind map for the disorder you selected. Consider the epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, clinical presentation, and diagnosis of the disorder, as well as any adaptive responses to alterations.

To Complete

Write a 2- to 3-page paper excluding the title page, reference page and Mind Map that addresses the following:

• For each of the three scenarios explain the pathophysiology, associated alterations and the patients’ adaptive responses to the alterations caused by the disease processes.  You are required to discuss all three scenarios within the paper component of this assignment.
• Construct one mind map on a selected disorder presented in one of the scenarios. Your Mind Map must include the epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, clinical presentation, and diagnosis of the disorder, as well as any adaptive responses to alterations.
• APA citation 3 to 4 references within 5 years

 “School-age children are eager learners and understand cause and effect. Including the school-age child in their care is welcomed by this age group. They should be actively involved in making decisions regarding their healthcare.” Choose Erickson’s, Piaget’s, or Kohlberg’s stages of development and describe what the nurse might expect in a school-age child. Explain how knowledge of development helps the nurse in assessment.  

The nursing process is a tool that puts knowledge into practice. By utilizing this systematic problem-solving method, nurses can determine the health care needs of an individual and provide personalized care.

Write a paper (1,750-2,000 words) on cancer and approach to care based on the utilization of the nursing process. Include the following in your paper:

1. Describe the diagnosis and staging of cancer.
2. Describe at least three complications of cancer, the side effects of treatment, and methods to lessen physical and psychological effects.
3. Discuss what factors contribute to the yearly incidence and mortality rates of various cancers in Americans.
4. Explain how the American Cancer Society (ACS) might provide education and support. What ACS services would you recommend and why?
5. Explain how the nursing process is utilized to provide safe and effective care for cancer patients across the life span. Your explanation should include each of the five phases and demonstrate the delivery of holistic and patient-focused care.
6. Discuss how undergraduate education in liberal arts and science studies contributes to the foundation of nursing knowledge and prepares nurses to work with patients utilizing the nursing process. Consider mathematics, social and physical sciences, and science studies as an interdisciplinary research area.

You are required to cite to a minimum of four sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and relevant to nursing practice.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required. 

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. 

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance. 

Benchmark Information

This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:

RN-BSN

2.1: Incorporate liberal arts and science studies into nursing knowledge.

3.1 Utilize the nursing process to provide safe and effective care for patients across the life s

I need a response for these 2 peers

Peer 1 

Societal justice and critical reflection are the fundamental concepts underlying community activism. The former refers to the unbiased distribution of resources for a prolific and fulfilling lifestyle (Reichlin et al., 2019). For instance, through campaigns and demonstrations, nurses, practitioners and the general community would be able to advocate the cause of providing adequate medical amenities.  

Critical reflection boosts one’s understanding of the resident community’s issues (such as inadequate staffing) as well as those of others across the globe. Through this approach, the management and staff members would be able to devise long-term resolutions that ensure adequate staffing in the present and future (Reichlin et al., 2019). For example, pursuing suitable programs at academic institutions can steer students in the direction of the healthcare industry.  

Paying attention and keeping up with the trends in the tobacco industry is vital. This effort helps the advanced practice nurses to engage in community activism for preventing the negative health impacts associated with Big Tobacco in their respective societies (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). As a result, the nurses would be in a position to enlighten the community members on addictiveness and diseases (such as lung cancer) associated with the increased consumption of tobacco products.  

Organizing programs to campaign against smoking is an essential stratagem that would aid nurses in educating the public on why tobacco control policy measures such as higher taxes are needed to ensure reduced consumption. With this tactic, nurses could participate in community activism to curb any further ill effects arising from the use of Big Tobacco (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). Moreover, holding seminars that counsel smokers and non-smokers, especially the youth, to remain vigilant against industry-instigated efforts would be essential in discouraging the consumption of tobacco products. 

Peer 2 

Through schooling, training, and knowledge learned along the way, Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners (ARNPs) are equipped with the necessary skillset and tools to assist members of the community have improvement in their health outcomes. As key players in patient, ARNPs play a vital role in community activism to bridge the gap in healthcare disparities across different population groups and to improve the community. Maryland & Gonzalez (2012) asserts that the vast “amount of interactions that nurses have with patients leads to them personally witnessing the positives and negatives of the current healthcare system and consequently enable them to identify the needs of their patients by the care or the lack of it they receive.” Due to their first-hand interaction, nurses can advocate for their patients and their families and convey their experiences to the public and policymakers to bring about change in current health care policies (Maryland & Gonzalez, 2012).  

According to Messias (2019), community activism entails the key concepts of “community, social justice, raising consciousness, critical reflection, praxis, and empowerment of members of the community.” With each key concept comes certain actions on the part of the activist and subsequent delineations of certain orders of events. Nurse Practitioners can embody all the characteristics of community activism Messias asserts to promote the overall health status of the community. According to Messias (2019), community activism starts with an understanding of the community, in which individuals must realize that they are part of a larger group and share common interests in order to catalyze change. Praxis entails the process of ideas and theories being made and actualized, which consequently brings about unification—or division—of members of the community. Praxis affects the practices and customs of members of the community and affect the interaction of these individuals. With social justice, the way individuals perceive justice and what is right or wrong, affects the justice system and what behaviors are viewed as deviant in the community.  

Raising consciousness and empowerment of members of the community are vital to altering the status quo hopefully for the better but negative impacts can ensue. Teaching members of the community that they have rights can empower them to develop or defend them against lawmakers. Shining light on certain issues, such as through protest and petition with local or federal elected officials can bring about necessary changes in the management of certain disease plaguing the community (Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, & O’Grady, 2016). Empowerment is the ultimate goal (Mason et al., 2016) as by doing so individuals in the community will do what is necessary to improve their health on a holistic level.  

Maryland & Gonzalez (2012) argues that nurses can make significant influence in community activism on a multilevel approach. Maryland & Gonzalez (2012) asserts that school nurses can attend school board meetings to voice their personal viewpoint of the ramifications of inadequate staffing to monitor the health of school children. They are only equipped with the knowledge to voice this opinion because of their personal experience with performing their duties of providing basic healthcare to their patients (in this case, school children). My daughter is a third grader at a local elementary school. In a school of more than 800 students, there is only one nurse. Imagine how difficult it is to provide care to these students during the cold and flu season or any ordinary day for that matter. This stresses the importance of community activism by nurses and advanced practice nurses. The level of care they provide to their patient population is affected by factors in the community so who is best to make the issues known and advocate for and against them but nurses? Nurses, through their inimitable experience with their patients, can bring to the forefront issues that affect their patient and the community. Policymakers should hold the voice of nurses in high-esteem prior to making any changes that will affect individuals of a community.  

From a community activism approach, ARNPS can mitigate further negative health impacts from Big Tobacco by bringing social awareness and consciousness to the issue. Letting members of the community become aware or reminded of the ramifications of smoking cigarettes or consuming other tobacco products will greatly decrease the number of individuals in the community that smoke or will smoke. Health fairs broadcasting posters of individuals with lung cancer or tracheostomies from cigarette smoking or oral cancers from chewing tobacco are one of the ways that ARNPS can use community activism to help manage the negative impact of Big Tobacco. On each healthcare visits, ARNPs need to assess if their patients smoke and make them aware of the ramifications in addition to offer smoking cessation counseling and education. Empowerment is necessary to help individuals in the community to stop because many of them have been smoking since childhood. Smoking is also a way that many of these individuals cope and manage stress. Offering them alternative coping measures is crucial to getting them to stop smoking. Educating the community of the long-term risk of smoking, the consumption, and second-hand smoking, is vital to deterring the use of tobacco and promoting the overall health of the community. Mason et al. (2016) states that tobacco usage and exposure is the foremost cause of preventable death in the nation. This statement alone will serve to remind individuals of the negative consequences of smoking and will lead to many of them quitting. 

To conclude, advanced practice nurses play a rather significant role in patient advocacy to improve the health outcomes of their patients. Nurses can employ various teaching methodologies to assist their patients improve their overall health. Tackling issues at the community level can help nurses being awareness to issues that directly and indirectly affect patients. Bringing awareness to certain issues, such as the negative influence of Big Tobacco on the overall health of individuals in a community, are one of the many ways that ARNPS can help ameliorate the health status of the community. The ARNP can collaborate with other members of the interdisciplinary team and elected officials to maximize the impact of decreasing negative health issues in the community. 

Response posts must be minimum 100 words each. Word document, double space. APA (6th) 

This the original work if you needed 

Describe the key concepts underlying community activism and give examples of how each of these concepts applies to a specific context. Examine how advanced practice nurses can engage in community activism to limit further negative health impacts from Big Tobacco in their respective health communities. 

Attached below is an additional resource, an article, that details various ways by which nursing professionals can engage in community activism. 

Patient Advocacy and in the Community and Legislative Arena: http://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-17-2012/No1-Jan-2012/Advocacy-in-Community-and-Legislative-Arena.html?css=print