Harold’s Discharge and Self-Management Plan
For the purpose of this assignment you are the Cancer Care Coordinator at the hospital where John receives his adjuvant chemotherapy for colorectal cancer. John is currently receiving his last cycle of chemotherapy and you will be meeting with him to provide education with regards to his discharge and self- management plan following the end of his active treatment.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most serious cancer diseases which are responsible for most cancer deaths in Australia. Despite its prevalence and the magnitude of its impacts, the cancer can be managed if appropriate interventions are implemented. John is a 65-year patient who has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. His assessment revealed that Harold has been facing these problems because of his lifestyle. From his medical history, it was observed that Harold has not been exercising and eating healthy foods. At the same time, he has been engaging in harmful behaviors such as alcoholism. This paper develops a discharge plan for Harold and all the follow-up activities that should be granted to him after his transition from the healthcare to home setting.
John has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. During the assessment, it was found out that the patient has no history of cancer in his family. However, although there is genetic linkage with cancer, the screening results proved that he has the disease. His age alongside the risky behaviors like physical inactivity, poor dieting, and alcoholism might have made him vulnerable to the disease. After the completion of the surgery, it is not time to discharge the patient and give him an opportunity to be in charge of his care at home. the discharge process must be done by adopting a multidisciplinary approach because it has involve the participation of different practitioners like surgeon, social workers, counselors, oncologists, nurses, and physicians. Each of these stakeholders should be present because they have a significant contribution to make to ensure that the patient manages his condition well and is put in the right path to recovery and regaining of his health.
When designing the discharge and self-management plan, the practitioner should ensure that everything is done to the perfection. Meaning, a care plan should encompass a wide range of aspects related to colorectal cancer management. The care plan should be designed to help in empowering the patient to engage in self-care (Van Cutsem, Cervantes, Nordlinger & Arnold, 2014). he will have to be taught about self-care because once discharged, he will be sent home where he might be the only one responsible for the management of his condition unless he is in a position to be given a full and continuous support by his family, relatives, friends and the loved ones. The education plan will, hence, encompass all the issues to do with dieting, physical activity, alcohol usage, compliance to medication, and the management of social, psychological, and spiritual aspects of the patient’s life (Kerscher, Chua, Gasser, Maeder, Kunzmann, Isbert & Pelz, 2013). Each of these must be catered for because without them, the patient might not be regarded to have received a holistic care that he deserves.
How to Execute the Education and Self-Management Plan
First and foremost, the self-management plan will have to include a detailed description of the recurrence of colorectal cancer. Recurrence, as its name suggests, simply refers to the reappearance (Brenner, Stock & Hoffmeister, 2013). Once the colorectal cancer is treated, it might again reappear some time back in the same spot that where it had been diagnosed. Since patients are not professionals, they must be educated and provided with the information that they need to know about the recurrence (Douillard, Oliner, Siena, Tabernero, Burkes, Barugel & Rivera, 2013). For this reason, therefore, when designing the self-management plan for John, he will have to be given adequate information on how to know if the disease has reappeared on his body. He will have to be informed about the signs and symptoms like weight loss, fatigue, abdominal pain, stool changes, constipation, production of black or bloody stool, and the changes in the bowel movements. The teaching on the recurrence of the cancer will have to be effectively-conducted because it means a lot to the patient.
In addition, the education plan will have to address the issue of self-management care strategies like the use of prescribed medications, diet, physical activity, and sleep patterns. During the discharge, the patient will be given some drugs which he is required to use (Burt, Cannon, David, Early, Ford, Giardiello & Jasperson, 2013). However, John should not be like other patients who do not comply with the medic’s instructions. Hence, to ensure that the patient complies with the prescriptions, he will have to be adequately taught on the roles of drugs and the negative impacts of failing to comply with the recommended dosage. When it comes to dieting, the patient will have to be taught that he should refrain from unhealthy food products and only use healthy ones which do not have fats and cholesterol (Siegel, DeSantis & Jemal, 2014). On the other hand, the education will touch on behavior changes such as having enough time for sleeping, and leading a cigarette and alcohol-free life. The teaching services will be done in a professional manner to ensure that they leave a positive impact on the patient.
Last, but by no means the least, the education plan will have to provide enough information on the way the patient will address his spiritual, social, and psychological health. As a matter of fact, cancer is a disease which not only affects physical health, but also directly impacts on the patient’s psychological, spiritual, and social health of the patient as well as his loved ones (Gustavsson, Carlsson, Machover, Petrelli, Roth, Schmoll & Gibson, 2015). Hence, to ensure that all this is addressed, the care plan will create room for the patient to collaborate with the family members and counselors to offer such services. The patient should, for instance, be encouraged to collaborate with peer groups where they can freely interact, share information, and learn from one another. If all these are properly done, the patient will not find it challenging to cope up with his condition and recover.
Strategies that will facilitate Education
One of the major roles of a healthcare provider is teaching. As a professional, the practitioner should always be ready to teach the patients and equip them with all the necessary information that they need. Teaching is important because it empowers the patients by giving them an ample opportunity to be part of the treatment process. This is the same service that will be given to John during his discharge. However, to ensure that the teaching process is effectively done, a number of measures will have to be taken.
The first strategy that will be adopted when teaching the patient is a proper use of communication skills. Here, it is necessary to use effective interpersonal and multicultural communication skills. this will be achieved by ensuring that during the entire session, the practitioner listens critically, respects the opinion and suggestions given by the patient, gives the patient enough time to express himself without any unnecessary interruptions, makes a proper use of language, becomes audible, uses a fairly reasonable rate of articulation, and carefully utilized the non-verbal communication signs (Hsueh, Wang, Sun, Tseng, Han, Hsiao & Yang, 2014). All these will enable the practitioner to appeal to the patient and establish a good rapport with him throughout the session. These are the communication competencies that must be applied when teaching the patient. They facilitate the teaching process and make it easier for the patient to learn something that will help him in managing his condition even in the absence of the medical practitioners who had been serving him at the hospital.
The other strategy that will be applied when educating Mr. John is the use of learner centered- teaching approach. This is a style of teaching in which the medic focuses on the patient as the central point of the teaching process. Meaning, the medic does not necessarily have to dominate the teaching process, but create room for the patent to actively participate in it (Bastable & Susan, 2016). The patient will participate by asking questions, seeking for clarifications, and giving suggestions. At the same time, the patient will be allowed to respond to some questions that will be posed by the medic (Helms Andersen, Folmann Hempler & Willaing, 2014). The medic will display a high degree of understanding, tolerance, patience, and respect. If this is properly done, the medic will manage to succeed in delivering a therapeutic care to the patient.
Conclusion
John is an example of a patient who requires a continued support. His diagnosis with colorectal cancer was a bad news to him because, just like any other patient, it affected his physical, psychological, and social health. However, since the patient has been treated, he has no choice, but to be discharged and be ready to accept the challenge of managing his health on his own at home. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the medics to come up with a discharge plan and lay-out a well-organized self-management plan for him. In the plan, the medics should ensure that they provide him with all the information that he needs to know regarding the recurrence of the disease, compliance with the prescribed medications, and how to facilitate his self-management efforts through the adoption of healthy eating habits, sleep patterns, and the management of his emotional and psychological health.
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