Case study

Case Study 25 year old Camilla Jenkenson returned to her home in Melbourne last week from a
holiday in Bali with a friend. Camilla consulted her local doctor as she felt unwell. She reported that
she had a fever, fatigue, shortness of breath with minimal activity, and a persistent non-productive
cough. Her friend had no symptoms, and Camilla said that she and her friend did everything
together including eating mostly the same meals. The only difference in the holiday was that she
received a very small tattoo on her ankle (where as her friend did not). The doctor sent Camilla to
the local hospital for diagnostic testing, as she had a slight heart murmur (which she did not
previously have a history of). The doctors at the hospital diagnosed bacterial endocarditis and
advised Camilla that she would need to be admitted to hospital to commence intravenous
antibiotics to treat the infection. Camilla was also advised that if her symptoms settled that she
would be discharged home on long-term antibiotic therapy. Alternatively, if her symptoms did not
settle she would require surgery. Camilla was admitted to the cardiology ward and commenced on
intravenous antibiotics two days ago via right PICC line. She was transferred to your ward
(neurology) yesterday when she suffered a small right temporal lobe stroke. Camillas family live in
rural Western Australia. She has a couple of close friends in Melbourne who she met at University.
Camilla is currently single, lives alone in a secondfloor flat, and works full-time as an accountant.
Please answer the following questions, using academic language and format. Introductions and
conclusions for each question are not required. There should be only one reference list containing
at least 18 references, predominantly recent peer-reviewed articles. A maximum of four academic
web sites may be used as well as two text books. The word count for each question will depend on
the marks allocated
Questions: 1. The family of Camilla are visiting her and ask you to explain how she had a stroke at
such a young age. Your answer should include an explanation of the aetiology and pathophysiology
of Camillas illness.(Ineffective endocarditic) Exam: How long is the treatment for endorcatis is
your answer should be written in academic format (e.g. using APA 6), the language should be
written as though you are explaining the concepts to an educated patient (e.g. not straight from a
text book).
2. Identify and justify the important focussed assessments that you would perform on Camilla using
a systems approach. Please reference the literature to support your rationales.
3. Prioritise and discuss the two main complications that you would be worried that Camilla may
experience within the next four weeks. Please rationalise your answers.

4. Describe two specific nursing tools that you could use in your nursing care of a patient, such as
Ms Jenkenson. Outline the rationale for your selection and reference the literature to support your
rationales.
For example, During Ms Jenkensons inpatient stay I would use the hospital anxiety and depression
scale (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983). This outcome measure is comprised of two sections, one to
measure anxiety and one to measure depression. As this patients illness has been sudden and the
long term effects as yet unknown, this patient is at risk of developing anxiety or depression and
baseline assessment needs to be recorded to determine if a therapeutic intervention is required