Problems that arise when the diseases become sphere cause alterations in the spinal code, causing stroke and status epilepticus. (Bohmwald et al., 2018). The paper aims to discuss some neurological alterations in detail by considering how they can be managed, aspects of nurse interventions, cultural considerations, and the patients’ teaching during the situation.
Increased Intracranial Pressure (ICP)
ICP happens when the brain experiences much pressure or tumor development that may cause bleeding. The situation has permanent complications that can damage the brain and lead to death (McNett et al., 2018).
Medical Management
Patients with ICP need to be subjected to osmotherapy with hypertonic saline or mannitol. If it rebels against the initial medication, the patients may need injections.
Communication
Families need teaching to prevent the contract of ICP and management if they are already ailing. Also, they should avoid activities that may induce the head with excessive pressure that is beyond control.
Cultural Considerations
The treatment of patients encountering ICP needs to follow cultural competency for healthcare. The delivery of health care should always meet the patient’s cultural, linguistic, and social needs.
Nursing interventions
Nurses need to intervene and keep the patient stable upon reception before brain imaging in radiology. Lowering ICP requires the nurse to place the holder of the patient at 30 degrees.
Rationales
The nurses need to intervene because a large among of intracranial pressure may threaten a patient’s life. It causes defects in crucial body structures and tampers with blood flow towards the brain.
Skull Fractures
Skull fractures occur whenever there is an injury to the brain. According to Zvejniece et al. (2020), a fracture may not be visible from the outside. It can only be detected through nose bleeding or swelling on the head.
Medical Management
The most crucial medication to first subject to someone encountering skull fracture in managing their pain. Next, the patient needs to be provided with narcotics or over-the-counter medications such as Tylenol.
Communication/teaching
People need to avoid blows that impact the head beyond the extent they can resist. For example, if a person is working in places where objects can land on their head.
Cultural Considerations
It is the right of every patient to receive adequate care from the nurses. The nurse should know of the cultural diversity of the patient so that they can treat them without compromising their beliefs.
Nursing interventions
A nurse needs to advise a patient on controlling skull fractures by instructing them to manage pain. Nurses should also teach patients how to exercise the unaffected muscles for them to stay healthy. The nurse also requires the patient to avoid further excessive pressure on the head.
Rationales
It would be ideal for the nurses to intervene in the patients encountering skull fractures. Nurses need to advise them on the drugs to alleviate pain. If skull fractures are not handled properly during the initial stages, they may damage the brain.
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)
SCI entails altering the spinal code that may affect its normal sensory functionality. According to Xia et al. (2018), it either happens temporarily or permanently. Once the patient has SCI, they may suffer from disturbing disabilities and neurologic deficiencies,
Medical Management
A patient experiencing spinal code injury requires emergency surgery if there is a cord injury to address the situation. The surgery can also help eliminate the broken bones that may damage spinal cords.
Communication/teaching
Patients with injuries to the spinal cord need to be made aware that nothing is certain. The first step they need to take is to seek medication to reduce the pains and remove the bones on the cords.
Cultural Considerations
Nurses need to be familiar with the cultural background of the patients upon subjecting them to treatment. They are not supposed to interfere with their culture but ensure that they provide quality care without discrimination.
Nursing interventions
The initial interventions of the nurses would be helping the patients alleviate their pains before surgery of the spinal code. They need to be advised on the pain-relieving drugs to take. Nurses also need to support the patients psychologically to help them relax during treatments.
Rationales
The nurses’ interventions are crucial because of the pains of a broken spinal cord. The bones are made insensitive and alter the transmission of the nerve impulses. As a result, the body is dormant, and it is hard to control the body systems.
Cerebrovascular Disease
It occurs due to a series of conditions that derails the smooth flow of blood in the brain through an effect on the blood vessels ( Aggarwal et al., 2020). The blood flow problem may be due to their ruptures, blockage, formation of clots, or being narrow.
Medical Management
Patients experiencing cerebrovascular diseases need to know several issues to help them overcome the consequences. First, they need to help the patient control the blood pressure to prevent rupture of the vessels. Also, patients should exercise regularly and be on a balanced diet to eliminate cholesterol.
Communication
The problem of developing the cerebral vascular disease can be prevented by families taking measures in advance. Families should also avoid therapies that entail hormone replacements as they would interfere with the brain.
Cultural Considerations
Patients should not be subjected to discrimination by nurses on cultural grounds. Other than the drug prescriptions, it would be ideal for grasping the social issues affecting them. Being fair and not judging them would make the patients content during treatments.
Nursing interventions
The nurse should take measures that would alleviate the pain the patient is experiencing. The nurse should also work on helping the patient shun away from cigarette smoking. Also, there should be more mental hygienic measures to help them avoid issues torturing their brains.
Rationales
There is much more important for the interventions by the nurses to stop the brain of a patient from straining in blood circulation and rupturing. If the case is not addressed, there might be executive bleeding that may essentially lead to death.
Status Epilepticus
It is epilepsy that lasts more than 5 minutes or more than one seizure in less than 5 minutes without returning to a normal level of consciousness ( Kapur et al., 2019). The condition is a medical emergency that might lead to permanent brain damage or death.
Medical Management
The use of strong intravenous medications to treat status epilepticus has the potential to have serious negative effects. As a result, the first line of treatment for the condition is to determine whether the client has a tonic-clonic seizure and whether the seizures have been prolonged.
Communication/teaching
Families should avoid stressing issues and pressures on the mind that may lead to damage to the brain. Much accumulation of several issues on the brain interferes with normal functioning.
Cultural Considerations
The nurse needs to understand the social issues affecting the patients to the extent of experiencing the seizures. They should be treated fairly regardless of there are culture or demographics.
Nursing interventions
The patients need to be placed in a room that has an adequate circulation of oxygen. Patients with seizure history need to be put under status epilepticus medication. The patients should also be kept safe by putting them on the side to curb aspiration.
Rationales
The reason for these interventions is to prevent the patients from brain damage that may lead to death. In addition, the medications help the patients to stop experiencing further seizures in the brain.
Conclusion
Nurses need to understand the neurological alterations to help the patients deal with spinal cord and brain pains. The patients should also practice safe mechanisms that could not lead to problems. The nurses need to understand the cultural background of the patient upon intervention and provide the medication fairly.
References
Aggarwal, G., Lippi, G., & Michael Henry, B. (2020). Cerebrovascular disease is associated with an increased disease severity in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a pooled analysis of published literature. International Journal of Stroke, 15(4), 385-389. Web.
Bohmwald, K., Galvez, N., Ríos, M., & Kalergis, A. M. (2018). Neurologic alterations due to respiratory virus infections. Frontiers in cellular neuroscience, 12, 386. Web.
Kapur, J., Elm, J., Chamberlain, J. M., Barsan, W., Cloyd, J., Lowenstein, D. & Silbergleit, R. (2019). Randomized trial of three anticonvulsant medications for status epilepticus. New England Journal of Medicine, 381(22), 2103-2113.
McNett, M., Moran, C., Grimm, D., & Gianakis, A. (2018). Pupillometry trends in the setting of increased intracranial pressure. Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, 50(6), 357-361.
Xia, P., Gao, X., Duan, L., Zhang, W., & Sun, Y. F. (2018). Mulberrin (Mul) reduces spinal cord injury (SCI)-induced apoptosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress in rats via microRNA-337 targeting Nrf-2. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, 107, 1480-1487. Web.
Zvejniece, L., Stelfa, G., Vavers, E., Kupats, E., Kuka, J., Svalbe, B. & Dambrova, M. (2020). Skull fractures induce neuroinflammation and worsen outcomes after closed head injury in mice. Journal of neurotrauma, 37(2), 295-304. Web.