Seminar Questions:

1. Sarah, age 68, was recently widowed after 40 years of marriage. She reports that

since her husband died she has started to smoke again. She also reports difficulty

sleeping, more pain from her rheumatoid arthritis, and episodes of shortness of

breath. She begins to cry when asked about her usual daily activities and hobbies.

She has stopped taking her blood pressure medication over the last month and

avoids discussing her financial status. What risk factors are present that may

predispose her to an altered health status?

Depression due to her husband’s passing away. The not discussing of

financial status can be signs of money problems which could be the reason for not

taking her blood pressure medicines which could lead to hypertension. The

depression could account for all of the symptoms

2. The physician has just given Linda a new prescription for relief of her arthritis

pain. She has many questions about the medication and how it may affect her.

What information should be included in her patient teaching and who should

conduct the patient teaching? The physician that is in charge of her care, should do

the teaching

Guidelines: the side effects of the new medications. The drug interaction, the

dosage, the risks involved with this new medicine

3. Advances in technology may help infants with early gestational age and/or low

birth weights survive. Good prenatal care improves their chances, but there are still

risks for infants born prematurely. How would you describe, under the direction of

the physician, the health risks and special care challenges preterm infants face that

would help expectant parents understand the importance of good prenatal care?
Being the parent and aunt of a premature baby, I can tell you that these babies have it harder

right from the start they have a hard time even to breathe because some organ might not be fully

developed. Premature births are associated with some diseases such as cerebral palsy, mental

retardation. Some may have to undergo surgery to fix problems from being born too early, some

like my son could not suck on a bottle so he had to be fed through a tube until he was more

developed. My nephew was born with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, he has seizers and

could never walk, his hands were deformed so he had problems feeding himself.