Susan Webster: A Fifteen Year Old with Spina Bifida

Price (includes one year of access and CE):  US$8 Course Code: 7SENNF-PRV-09-ddn13s01 CE: 1.00 Hours. Post Test Score Required for Successful Completion: 80%

Course Overview:

Spina bifida is a congenital condition in which the spinal cord is not properly closed so that the meninges or spinal cord is exposed a birth. It can result in neurological deficits, including paralysis and hydrocephalus. In this case scenario, a school nurse welcomes a 15-year-old girl with spina bifida to her new school at the beginning of the school year. The girl ambulates with crutches and self-catheterizes, so she needs some accommodations in the school setting. The school nurse offers the girl choices about which bathroom best meets her needs, and the girl decides to use the bathroom in the nurse's office. As the relationship between the school nurse and the girl develops, the nurse assesses that the girl is excessively fatigued by the demands of ambulating with crutches on a large campus and helps the girl approach her parents about using a wheelchair at school. The nurse also helps the girl to engage in creative problem solving when she feels lonely, and helps her develop skills to handle teasing from other students.

Course Objectives:

After completion of this learning activity, the learner will be able to:

• describe some of the physical and behavioral characteristics of an adolescent affected by spina bifida.
• describe the partnership triad among the nurse, the adolescent with spina bifida, and her caregiver (mother).
• apply elements of human caring to the concept that an adolescent with spina bifida is a person who has value and deserves respect, has the right to self-determination and maximum independence, has capacity for growth and development, and has ability for meaningful communication.
• apply elements of human caring and mutual respect to not only the individual, but also to the caregiving parent.
• identify responses that appropriately encourage and support the expression of feelings by the adolescent with spina bifida.
• identify nursing interventions that can be implemented by the school nurse in support of an adolescent with spina bifida.

This courseware was made possible in part by grant number R43 NR04738-03 from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors.

Copyright© 2007 by HealthSoft, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

HealthSoft, Inc. is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the New York State Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

It has been assigned code 7SENNF-PRV-09.

This course is updated annually. Expiration date: 5/1/11

The faculty and planners of this course have no vested interests to disclose.

This course has received no commercial support.