NURSING: Advanced Pathophysiology

NURSING: Advanced Pathophysiology

Adaptive Reaction

Advanced Pathophysiology in Nursing You will examine patients with a variety of disorders as an advanced practice nurse. You must therefore understand how the body normally works in order to recognize when it is reacting to changes. When changes occur in body systems, the body frequently responds with compensatory mechanisms. These compensatory mechanisms, such as adaptive responses, could be indications of changes or underlying disorders. In the clinical setting, these responses, along with other patient factors, are used to help you make a diagnosis.

Consider the following examples:

1st Scenario:

Jennifer, a 2-year-old girl, arrives with her mother. Jennifer has been “running a temperature” for the last three days, which worries Mom. Jennifer, according to her mother, is generally healthy and has no significant medical history. She was in good health until three days ago, when she became fussy, refused to eat her breakfast, and refused to sit still for her favorite television cartoon. She has had a fever on and off since then, ranging from 101oF to today’s high of 103.2oF. Mom has been giving her ibuprofen, but when her fever reached 103.2oF today, she felt she needed to be evaluated. A physical examination reveals a 2-year-old female of appropriate height and weight who appears acutely ill. Her skin is scorching and parched. The tympanic membranes are slightly reddened around the edges, but otherwise appear normal. With 4+ tonsils and diffuse exudates, the throat is erythematous. On the left side, the anterior cervical nodes are easily palpable and clearly tender to touch. The child expresses that her throat hurts “a lot” and that swallowing is painful. A temperature of 102.8oF, a pulse rate of 128 beats per minute, and a respiratory rate of 24 beats per minute are revealed by vital signs.

Scenario No. 2:

Jack, a 27-year-old man, presents with hand redness and irritation. He claims to have never had a problem like this before, but about two weeks ago he noticed that both of his hands were extremely red and flaky. He denies any discomfort, claiming that they are occasionally “a little bit hot,” but otherwise fine. He has no idea why they are so red. His wife suggested that he get some steroid cream because he might have an allergy. Except for recurrent ear infections as a child, Jack has no known allergies or significant medical history. He denies any traumatic injury or known irritant exposure. He works as a maintenance engineer in a newspaper building and admits to working with abrasive solvents and chemicals on a regular basis. Normally, he wears protective gloves, but they appear to be in short supply lately, so he sometimes does not use them. He has been exposed to some of these cleaning fluids, but says it never hurt and that he always washed his hands afterward.

3rd scenario:

Martha, 65, recently retired from her job as an administrative assistant at a local hospital. Her medical history is notable for hypertension, which she has been managing for years with hydrochlorothiazide. She reports that she has been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately, that she has a “racing heartbeat,” and that she is losing her appetite. She emphasizes that she is not as hungry as she once was. Her 87-year-old mother moved into her home a few years ago, which was the only significant change in her life recently. Mom had always been in good health, but she fell down the stairs and broke her hip. Her recovery was difficult because she has lost a lot of mobility and independence and must rely on her daughter for help with daily activities. Martha admits that it is not the retirement she had hoped for, but as an only child, she is content to care for her mother. Mom gets up early in the morning, bathes every day, and has always eaten five small meals per day. Martha has to devote a significant amount of time to caring for her mother, so the fact that she is sleeping and eating less is almost a “blessing.” She is concerned about her own health, however, and wants to know why she suddenly requires less sleep at her age.

To Get Ready

Examine the three scenarios as well as Chapter 6 of Huether and McCance’s book.

Identify the pathophysiology of the disorders presented in each of the three scenarios, as well as the alterations associated with them. Consider the adaptive reactions to the changes.

Examine the “Mind Maps—Dementia, Endocarditis, and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)” media examples in this week’s Learning Resources. Then, from the scenarios, choose one of the disorders you identified. Create a mind map for the disorder you’ve chosen using examples from the media. Consider the disorder’s epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, clinical presentation, and diagnosis, as well as any adaptive responses to changes.

Examine the Application Assignment Rubric, which can be found under Course Information.

To finish

Write a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following topics, excluding the title page, reference page, and Mind Map:

Explain the pathophysiology, associated alterations, and patients’ adaptive responses to the alterations caused by disease processes for each of the three scenarios.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource

You must discuss all three scenarios in the paper portion of this assignment.

Create one mind map on a selected disorder from one of the scenarios. The epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, clinical presentation, and diagnosis of the disorder, as well as any adaptive responses to changes, must all be included in your Mind Map.