A Patient/Family Centered Nursing Care Study on Hypertension

Abstract

Modern nursing is a profession that requires knowledge, skills and attitude. It owes much of its body of knowledge to the influence of Florence Nightingale (1820 - 1910), a woman who pioneered and brought much respect to the profession through her vision. The ability to render Comprehensive nursing care rests on the nurses’ ability to assess the client’s condition, analysis, Plan, implement and evaluate the effects of management on patient health status. Nursing in the past four decades have brought emphasis on nursing research and the use of scientific data at the bedside. Nursing care has broadened from care of the sick to care of the people both in sickness and health and also extend to the patient’s family and community at large in all aspects regardless of the background. Patient and family care study is a report of comprehensive nursing care rendered and patient and their family from the day of admission, discharge and subsequent follow ups visits in other to help them meets their health needs. By using the nursing process in caring for the patient, emphasis is based on health promotion, maintenance and restoration or enhancing a peaceful death depending on how nature may act on the patient’s condition after a holistic care has been rendered. The care involves the interaction between the nurse and the patient as well as the family. The changing scene of nursing care has brought into being the patient and family care study, as a partial requirement by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana for the award of License to practice as a General Nurse. It is in this regard that I chose a patient with Hypertension for the care study whose name was denoted by her initials due to confidentiality purposes. The study serves as a reference paper for other student nurses and qualified health personnel who may be interested in its content.