You are a third year nursing student on placement in a very busy surgical ward in a large regional public hospital. You have been asked to complete a pain assessment on Orianna, an 82 year old lady

Assignment Task

In this assessment you are required you to write an essay based on the case study which appears below. Using the case study:

1. Discuss any value assumptions seen within interactions in the case study.

2. Explain how the principles of transpersonal caring can be applied to improve the interactions in the case study.

You are a third year nursing student on placement in a very busy surgical ward in a large regional public hospital. You have been asked to complete a pain assessment on Orianna, an 82 year old lady who had a surgical intervention to repair a fractured R) NOF after a fall at home. Orianna’s past history includes, caesarean sections, hemorrhoids, HT, bipolar disorder and ADD (attention deficit disorder). Orianna usually lives independently at home, is independent with her ADL’s and uses public transport to go shopping and for socialising. She is single, has two adult children, one lives interstate and the other overseas. Orianna enjoys volunteering at the local high school where she helps students who have disability with their studies.

You notice how incredibly busy the ward is and how stressed the nurses look. The surgical ward has recently introduced caring theory into their pain assessment because feedback indicated it was an area that needed improvement. You see nursing staff carrying lanyards with the 10 caritas processes as prompts in the pain assessment and decorative cards for patients to choose non pharmacological caring-healing modalities as a complement to traditional pharmacological modalities. You have been given a lanyard by your buddy nurse and some of the decorative cards. You are enthusiastic about using these in the pain assessment. You enter Orianna’s room, introduce yourself and begin the assessment introducing the decorative cards. Orianna yells at you, swears at you and tells you to go away and never come back.

You leave the room and tell your buddy nurse what has happened. Your RN asks you to reflect on the principles of transpersonal teaching focusing on caritas process 7, promotion of transpersonal teaching and learning. In a caring relationship, this helps you stay within the frame of reference of your patient. Your buddy nurse suggests when you go back to see Orianna, you base your interaction on an understanding of these principles as a person with unique needs and as a basis for ethical, person centered care in practice.

You take time preparing before you go back to Orianna’s room. When you return you approach with a caring attitude and a focus on a caring-healing modality. You ask about her children and volunteer work and she begins to open up about the things most important in her life.