Assignment task:
This case study should be done in a nursing report fashion. Cite answers and give references.
Ms. Carlyle, 73 years old, cares for her 105-year-old mother, Mrs. Stanton, who has end-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). Ms. Carlyle has been her mother's caregiver for the past 15 years. In addition to AD, Mrs. Stanton has hypokalemia and constipation. She makes nonverbal vocalizations but no speech and has few voluntary movements of her extremities, except for banging her right wrist on her upper bed rails. She has been bedridden for the past 2 years and is incontinent of bowel and bladder. A percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube was inserted 2 years ago, when dysphagia led to repeated episodes of pneumonia. She has tube feedings every four hours. Mrs. Stanton is 5′8″ tall and weighs 125 pounds (BMI 19 kg/m2). Ms. Carlyle takes meticulous care of her mother and aside from perineal maceration and occasional yeast infections, there have been no pressure injuries.
The nurse conducts a home visit and completes a Modified Caregiver Strain Index. Ms. Carlyle scores 12 on the index, indicating her sleep is disturbed, it is physically stressful for her to provide care for her mother, and it is distressing to her to see her mother in this state. She has also had to make adjustments with family and her personal life in order to care for her mother. The nurse sits with Ms. Carlyle and discusses the situation and provides her with community resources to support her as a caregiver and educate her about self-care.