Case Study #2: Pneumonia
Learning Objectives
Case 2 describes a patient’s experience of COPD exacerbation due to community acquired pneumonia. The patient in this case study has a complicated health history. The interprofessional collaboration is role modelled between nursing, medical radiology, medical laboratory, and health care workers in the emergency department.
Learners reviewing this case can consider how pneumonia affects COPD. Additionally this case offers opportunity for discussion on supporting families both in the Emergency Department and acute medicine areas. The interprofessional collaboration is ideal and offers opportunities for further discussion on why the collaboration works so well and what barriers would prevent ideal collaboration.
Note: The story told here is used in case 1 and case 2. The simpler version in case 1 can be used to teach novice students about health case studies. Case 2 reintroduces the patient from case 1 and expands her story with more details for more advanced study.
Learning Objectives
In this case, learners have an opportunity to:
- Review etiological factors (i.e., risk factors, prevalence, comorbidities) associated with respiratory disease
- Build knowledge related to the patient’s experience of respiratory insufficiency, including COPD and pneumonia
- Continue to develop comprehensive assessment and monitoring skills and abilities (e.g., relevant abnormal physical assessment findings, ABGs, lab, and diagnostic data)
- Consider the links between evidence-based knowledge and practice in the care of patients with pneumonia (e.g., CAP guidelines)
- Recommend interventions based on the risk factors, status, and progression of pneumonia (e.g., antibiotic therapy, oxygen therapy)
- Define the roles of health care professionals and the contributions they make to the healthcare team (or describe your own role and the roles of those in other professions)
