3805 Health & Illness in the Older Person
Assessment 1, Case Study Report - 2000 words (50%)
Due Date: Week 6, Monday August 19th, 2019, 5pm
AIM:
People aged 65 years and older constitute 50% of health service users. As people age, they experience changes to their physical and mental function, and can experience many social changes in terms of family and career. For those requiring health services, these changes are further complicated by illness (Moyle, Parker & Bramble, 2014).
The aim of this assignment is to apply the theoretical knowledge gained from modules 1 and 2 of this course to a case study that you have encountered in a Bachelor of Nursing clinical placement. Being able to discuss a case and design a care plan around that case are important skills for all registered nurses. Practising this process will help you to feel more confident to provide nursing care to an older person in the clinical setting.

TASK DESCRIPTION:
For this task you need to prepare a 2000-word case study report. There are two parts to this report:
For Part 1 you need to write a 500-word case study in which you discuss the care of an older person (over 65 years, or over 55 years if the person identifies as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander) who has at least TWO (2) co-morbidities that impact their functional status*.
For Part 2 you need to create a 1500-word comprehensive nursing care plan for that older person.
*This should be an older person you have encountered during a clinical placement.
Further Task Instructions:
Part 1 – As this assignment is a Case Study Discussion, you need to:
? Introduce the purpose of the case study.
? Identify the person (the case) and take care to preserve the confidentiality of that person; you should use a pseudonym.
? Briefly discuss the two co-morbidities that impact their functional status.
? Briefly examine a specific, and recent environmental change impacting this older person.
? With reference to current, scholarly literature, discuss the extent to which specific stereotypes of older people are having a negative impact on the health of the person, their health care and their health outcomes.
Part 2 – In your comprehensive Care Plan you need to:
• Select and justify the top three care priorities (objectives) for nursing care (you can use dot points if you wish).
• Propose and discuss evidenced-based nursing interventions to manage the three care priorities.
? Describe a strategy that you might implement to evaluate whether the proposed interventions successfully manage the three care priorities (that is, how will you know the interventions have worked?).
? Please use the Care Plan Template that has been provided to guide the structure of your care plan (part 2).
Review these guides to writing a case study:
? Griffith University Guide to Writing a Case Study (available with assignment instructions as separate document)
? Monash University How to Write the Case Study
? QUT Writing a Case Study Response
Reference
Moyle, W., Parker, D., & Bramble, M. (2014). Care of older adults: A strengths-based approach. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

Care Plan Template (Part 2 of Assignment 1)
In your plan you must:
1. Select and justify the top three (3) care priorities/objectives for nursing care;
2. Discuss evidenced-based nursing interventions to achieve each objective; and
3. Describe the evaluation criteria that you will use to judge whether the plan addressed the identified objectives.
Select / Identify and Justify the top three care priorities/objectives for nursing care. In priority order, what is care priority 1? what is care priority 2? and what is care priority 3? What recommended text/primary research references support my choice of each care priority and why are they important?
1. Support with references.
2. Support with references.
3. Support with references.
Discuss evidenced-based nursing interventions to achieve each objective. Ask yourself: What are the significant health care needs for my older patient related to each identified care priority? What nursing interventions will address the nursing care priorities I have identified? How can I support my selection of care priorities using text and primary research sources?
1. Care priority 1 … (support with references)
2. Care priority 2 … (support with references)
3. Care priority 3 … (support with references)
Describe the evaluation criteria that you will use to judge whether your care plan has addressed the identified care priorities. Ask yourself: How did I evaluate each nursing intervention? What measures did I use? What time line was chosen and why? Was the plan of care successful?
1. Care priority 1 … (support with references)
2. Care priority 2 … (support with references)
3. Care priority 3 … (support with references)

Additional information:
? Ten (10) different sources from the scholarly literature should inform the case study discussion and care plan.
? Always refer to the Health Group Writing and Referencing Guide.
? Ensure that you use scholarly literature (digitised readings, research articles, relevant Government reports and text books) that has been predominantly published within the last 5 years.
? Use academic language and health specific terminology throughout.
? Refer to the marking guidelines when writing your assignment. This will assist you in calculating the weightings of the sections for your assignment.
? You may use headings to organise your work and use the third person in your writing.
? It is important that you maintain confidentiality as per University guidelines and include no identifying demographic information about patients, colleagues or institutions. Please use pseudonyms.
? You do not need to submit an Assignment Coversheet. State your word count (excluding your reference list) on the Assignment Title Page.
? Submit your assignment electronically via TURNITIN on your Learning@Griffith site. [Submit in the ‘assessment’ tab].

3805NRS Assignment 1, Case Study, Marking Guidelines
CRITERIA POSSIBLE MARK
CRITERION ONE: Part 1 Case Study Discussion
• The main health problems associated with at least 2 co-morbidities of your chosen case/older person (over 65 years or over 55 years if Australia’s First Peoples) are discussed in terms of how they impact functional status.
• How a specific and recent environmental change impacts on the older person’s health is examined.
• The effect of ‘older person’ stereotypes on the individual’s care and health outcomes are discussed. /10
CRITERION TWO: Part 2 Plan of Care
• Identify and justify the top 3 care priorities/objectives for nursing care relevant to your chosen case study.
• Describe and justify evidenced-based nursing interventions to achieve each objective.
• Care Plan is supported by at least ten (10) different sources from the scholarly literature. /25
CRITERION THREE: Part 2 Evaluation

• Clear description of an evaluation strategy to determine whether the proposed interventions successfully manage the 3 identified care priorities.
• The evaluation strategy is relevant to the situation in the case, is measurable and timely. /10
CRITERION FOUR: Academic Writing

• The writing is clear, concise and free of APA (6th ed) errors.
• Report adheres to the word limit.
• The case study report is well presented. Spelling and grammar are correct, and sentences and paragraphs are well constructed. /5
Total Marks
[weighted at 50%] /50