The registered nurse is caring for a patient who was just diagnosed with Type 1
ID: 50670 • Letter: T
Question
The registered nurse is caring for a patient who was just diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. As the RN begins to teach the patient about self monitoring of blood glucose, dietary considerations and insulin injections the patients states “I am not going to do this, stick myself with needles every day for the rest of my life.” Discuss an approach the RN can take to assist this patient to cope with this new diagnosis that will result in understanding and compliance. What factors would the RN need to consider? Discuss which steps of the teaching-learning process were not employed. What might have been done differently?
Explanation / Answer
The approach the RN can take to assist the patient will be to take the patient through the process slowly and with patience. Since the diagnosis was just done the patient tends to get overwhelmed and not accept major lifestyle changes in daily routine. The RN should first of all evaluate the basic coping skills of the patient and his personality. She should carefully examine and assess patient's adaptation. The evaluation will help the nurse to classify patient's personality and then decide the course of teaching about diabetes mellitus to the patient.