Discuss with your fellow students what you would do in the following home health care situations. What knowledge, attitudes, and skills are required to successfully address these needs?

·         An 85-year-old patient cannot move by himself an refuses to eat. His 83-year-old wife tries to care for him, but she is under a great deal of stress and begins to cry when you enter their apartment.

·         A 43-year-old woman is receiving home care after surgery to repair a herniated vertebral disc (“slipped disc”). When you arrive for the scheduled visit, you find that her speech is slurred and she does not remember how much pain medication she has taken.

·         A 2-year-old has a malignant brain tumor. He is not expected to live more than 1 week and is receiving hospice care.

·         A 55-year-old man with end-stage lung cancer is discharged home with a referral to a visiting nurse agency. He is receiving oxygen therapy. When the first visiting nurse enters his home, she finds the patient smoking, oblivious to the dangers with the oxygen in the room. When the nurse explains her safety concerns, he states that he might as well just die now if he isn’t able to smoke because smoking is the only pleasure he has left.