E.S. is a 68-year-old Caucasian female who has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. According to Stedman’s Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing, “rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic disease, that more often occurs in women than in men, which affects connective tissue” (Stedman, 2005, p. 1276). She has had this rheumatic disease for the past 15 years. As would be expected with RA, her symptoms and pain have progressively gotten worse over that period of time. The disease has affected both the joints in her hands and the joints in her knees, but her hands are where the majority of her pain stems from. She is the main person of her household, meaning that she does all of the cleaning, cooking and shopping for her family. Having RA has made it extremely difficult for her to continue her activities of daily living. Management of her symptoms, pain and inflammation, can be done with some success by the medications she has been prescribed. Teaching her......
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Approximate Word Count: 2610
Approximate Pages: 11 (260 words per double-spaced page) |