Family Nursing Diagnosis The O’Campo family is made up of a husband Danilo and his wife Lydia. They were born in the Philippines and came to the USA when Lydia was 20 and Danilo was 23 years of age. They suffered through the death of their son Emilio who died from an automobile accident at the age of 22. Although this was traumatic for them they recovered from the trauma. Now they find themselves enduring the hardships of aging. Danilo 74 has severe cardiac problems, and Lydia 69, is suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Danilo is Lydia’s primary caregiver.
One night Lydia falls at home and breaks her hip, and requires an admission to the hospital for surgery. The admission doesn’t result in improvements, and she deteriorates, and becomes more confused. Danilo also begins to deteriorate as well, because he is neglecting himself. Lydia is eventually discharged from the hospital and sent to a rehabilitation hospital for physical therapy. They started her on a routine and she did rather well and was sent home. Their grandniece Kristina received them and was taking care of them and their house in-between semesters for school.
When Kristina left, Lydia got worse, she began to sleep walk in the middle of the night. Danilo was unable to keep with her due to his CHF, and had a heart attack, he died at the hospital. Lydia was then transferred to a nursing home, her health continued to deteriorate and she passed away shortly after her husband. Nursing diagnosis are a part of the nursing process and is a clinical judgment about individual, family, or community experiences/responses to actual or potential health problems/life processes.
Nursing diagnoses are developed based on data obtained during the nursing assessment portion of the nursing process. A nursing diagnosis that is appropriate for this family is, Interrupted family process related to family role shift. Mr. O’Campo was the sole caregiver to his wife Lydia, however since her hospitalization he was forced to give up some of his duties as a caregiver to the hospital staff. As a result his wife Lydia became more confused, and combative towards those whom she was not accustomed in dealing with on a daily basis, and because she was taken out of her routine with her husband.
Another nursing diagnosis that is appropriate to the O’Campo family is caregiver role restraint related to apprehension about care receiver’s health and caregiver’s ability to provide care. Lydia’s hospitalization has caused a lot of strain on the health of Danilo. His cardiac and respiratory statuses have deteriorated significantly due to him neglecting his own health. The last nursing diagnosis that would apply to the O’Campo family, Danilo specifically would be non-compliance related to lack of taking care of himself.
As a result Danilo deteriorated quickly and lacked to take the appropriate measures of seeking medical attention quickly, and in turn decided to self-treat himself. In Healthy People 2020 they discuss some of the important tips to help the elderly with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Some of the suggestions include, increasing the availability of existing effective diagnostic tools. Increasing awareness will in turn decrease the number of people with undiagnosed dementia. There are breakthrough treatments and new research studies assisting in reducing the severity of symptoms through better medical management.
Providing more support to family caregivers with social, behavioral, and legal resources. The caregivers should encourage healthy behaviors to reduce the risk of co-occurring conditions. Danilo had a structured routine for Lydia. He tried to do the same things with her at the same time every day, to minimize, confusion and altered behaviors that may be risky to her and Danilo as well. There are so many resources available to Alzheimer’s patients and their family. The Alzheimer’s Association is a leading voluntary health organization for Alzheimer's disease for Alzheimer's care support and research.
Caring Bridge is a nonprofit organization providing free websites that connect family and friends during a serious health event, care and recovery. A Caring Bridge website is personal, private and available 24/7. It helps ease the burden of keeping family and friends informed. The websites are easy to create and use. Authors add health updates and photos to share their story while visitors leave messages of love and support in the guestbook. Children of Aging Parents (CAPS) is a non-profit organization that assists caregivers of elderly of chronically ill individuals with reliable information, referrals and support.
