Patients Suffering From Neurologic Issues and Nursing Care

Nursing Care of Patients With Neurologic Issues

This article is about a research that compares people who have had strokes and the problems that they experience with eating, three months after their illness. Researchers elaborate on the challenges that stroke victims experience in their daily life, including problems with eating, taking care of their appearance, taking a bath, using the bathroom and their bodily functions with this respect, and moving from one place to another. One of the frequent consequences of stroke is the challenges experienced by victims while eating, and this is something common in the countries in Europe. However, there are insufficient studies on difficulties in feeding that are experienced by victims of strokes in the three months after their attacks. More insight is therefore required into how these difficulties with feeding develop so that the result of the stroke on the victim's ability to function socially can be examined. It will also aid in the giving of proper nursing care. Medin (2012) goes on to say that the knowledge currently available on the immediate eating challenges after the stroke indicate that there exists a gap in how the eating abilities of a stroke victim develop, and that is the gap that this study tries to address (Medin, 2012).

By reading this article, I learned that eating difficulties are the challenges that adversely affect the preparation as well as the consumption of food or drink. Some of these difficulties are experienced when the victim cannot maintain a proper siting position when he or she is consuming food.

Sometimes, the individual may not be able to handle the food served or even bring it to their mouth. The victim may also lack sufficient strength to move the food from the plate to their mouth, to chew or to swallow.

In the months after the person has suffered a stroke, they may recover neurologically as well as in their ability to function in a period of a few months after the stroke. There have, however, been only a few studies that have dealt with the problems experienced with eating.

I found out that the study was a comparative longitudinal study. The study was conducted within a period of one year and three months, that is March 2007-June 2008. The stroke victims included in the study were 36 and the number of feeding challenges they had was between two and seven.

In order to identify these challenges, observation method was used through a structured procedure. Various scales were used to measure other factors, such as the Revised Oral Assessment Guide to measure oral status and the Barthel Index to measure the functional status.

The McNemar test was used to evaluate the oral status relating to meal tools used and the difference between the initial state and the state three months after the stroke. T-tests were made use of when comparing the nutritional status as well as the welfare of the patient psychologically. The study, in addition, made use of Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and these were done on the data that was availed. No incomplete data was used in the analysis except one observation missing a value. The significance level was

The people who took part in the survey were composed of males at 42% and females at 58%. The range of their ages was between 40 and 88 years and the assessment period was in the immediate period after the stroke, that is, between three and twelve days, and the next assessment was done after three months.

In the second assessment, it was observed that the challenges experienced and noted within the first assessment had significantly improved. A larger number could sit better, handle the food on their plate and chew it as well. Some things, however, had not changed in the second assessment and these were the problems of lowered alertness, eating slowly, the action of moving the mouth and even swallowing food.

Three months after the stroke, the patient's functional status was seen to have reduced. At this stage, it was found that nutritional status was also better with those at risk of poor nutrition, reducing from 77.8% to 56%. The number of the patients who were malnourished remained constant at 5.6%.

The patients in the acute phase and in the period three months after the stroke showed no change in the way they perceived their self-care challenges in terms of grooming, dressing oneself and bathing.

From this study, of the challenges in eating for stroke patients between the acute phase and three months, I learnt that significant differences exist between the abilities and functions of the stroke victim. These differences were in terms of the ability to feed themselves, their functions and their score on nutrition and unilateral neglect. The things that remained the same within this period were their oral status and welfare psychologically.

I learnt that most of the difficulties remained although the functioning of the person physically improved. Therefore, it is imperative that other things other than physical functions be considered when considering eating difficulties in stroke patients.