prescribing case study
Case Study
As my learning needs and areas of development have been identified within my portfolio, the following case study will focus on the assessment and prescribing process for a 64 year old lady with a history of venous leg ulcers. The identified patient, who will be known as Jane to maintain confidentiality (NMC, 2008) was chosen due to the high number of patients who have venous leg ulcers that are nursed by community teams. Approximately 1-2% of adults will have a leg ulcer at some point in their lives, this figure increases with age to around 3.6% of people over 65 years being affected (Christian, 2013). Venous leg ulcers are costly to treat, and respond best to early diagnosis and treatment (McKenzie, 2010). Patients often find leg ulcers painful, embarrassing and they have a negative impact on their own body image (Parker, 2012).
Rationale
When having my yearly appraisal I identified that I wanted to undertake the non-medical prescribing course as I felt this would enhance my nursing practice and provide better continuity of care to patients that I was caring for. I find it very frustrating when trying to obtain the correct dressings for patients and often find myself waiting outside the GP office to obtain a prescription which is not an effective use of time. Bryant (2011) suggests that community nurses feel frustrated with delays in obtaining the necessary resources for their work, such as dressings that are traditionally only obtained by prescription from the patient’s GP, with these delays being a prompt to undertake the prescribing course. Undertaking further training to expand the nurse role can improve patient care by being able to access items required in a much more cost and time effective way (Dekkar et al. 2013) and enhance job satisfaction for the nurse. However Bryant (2011) suggests that this can be a daunting experience for the nurse when faced with taking on the sole responsibility for the treatment of the patient and this can
As my learning needs and areas of development have been identified within my portfolio, the following case study will focus on the assessment and prescribing process for a 64 year old lady with a history of venous leg ulcers. The identified patient, who will be known as Jane to maintain confidentiality (NMC, 2008) was chosen due to the high number of patients who have venous leg ulcers that are nursed by community teams. Approximately 1-2% of adults will have a leg ulcer at some point in their lives, this figure increases with age to around 3.6% of people over 65 years being affected (Christian, 2013). Venous leg ulcers are costly to treat, and respond best to early diagnosis and treatment (McKenzie, 2010). Patients often find leg ulcers painful, embarrassing and they have a negative impact on their own body image (Parker, 2012).
Rationale
When having my yearly appraisal I identified that I wanted to undertake the non-medical prescribing course as I felt this would enhance my nursing practice and provide better continuity of care to patients that I was caring for. I find it very frustrating when trying to obtain the correct dressings for patients and often find myself waiting outside the GP office to obtain a prescription which is not an effective use of time. Bryant (2011) suggests that community nurses feel frustrated with delays in obtaining the necessary resources for their work, such as dressings that are traditionally only obtained by prescription from the patient’s GP, with these delays being a prompt to undertake the prescribing course. Undertaking further training to expand the nurse role can improve patient care by being able to access items required in a much more cost and time effective way (Dekkar et al. 2013) and enhance job satisfaction for the nurse. However Bryant (2011) suggests that this can be a daunting experience for the nurse when faced with taking on the sole responsibility for the treatment of the patient and this can