Nursing Interventions to Aid the Widower

Nursing Interventions to Aid the Widower

Foundations of Nursing

NURS114

Professor CK

June 3, 2016

Nursing Interventions to Aid the Widower

Today the home health nurse is meeting with Mr. Gonzales for his initial interview for a safety and health assessment. His wife recently passed away six months ago and Mr. Gonzales stated to the nurse that “(he) is lonely.” The nurse said to Mr. Gonzales and Claims that she is going to be getting some vital signs from him and then ask him some questions about his health history.

The first thing the nurse does is make sure that Mr. Gonzales is actually Mr. Gonzales, so she asks him to verify his name and date of birth. He does and she continues. She explains each step of the initial assessment starting with temperature, pulse rate, and respirations, although this she doesn't state since some patients will try to change the way they breathe if they know you're watching and counting. Once she gets to the blood pressure she just makes sure Mr. Gonzales knows what she is doing. All the while she is assessing Mr. Gonzales's mental health and his level of depression.

Once she is done taking Mr. Gonzales’s vital signs, which are all normal, she has him give her a brief statement of his medical history. She also asked him about his concerns and worries. He expresses how lonely he is since his wife died and he is retired. He tells her he only leaves the house to go to mass every day and that's it. The nurse quickly realizes that he is extremely sad and withdrawn. She asked how does he get his basic necessities for his ADLs or activities of daily living? He says that there are volunteers as part of the building lives in that bring him things every once in a while.

At this point, the nurse can say, with confidence, that she would like to perform a head-to-toe assessment which will give her a better idea of what health risks he may have, if any. During each step she explains to Mr. Gonzales what she is doing and what he may...