Matthew Green: A Young Adult with Asperger's Syndrome

Price (includes one year of access and CE):  US$8 Course Code: 7SENNF-PRV-09-ddn13s09 CE: 1.00 Hours. Post Test Score Required for Successful Completion: 80%

Course Overview:

Asperger's syndrome (AS) is a developmental disability on the autistic spectrum most often noted during the early school years. It is characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and by repetitive behavior patterns. This case scenario presents a young man with AS who is transitioning from living at home to living away at college, and now also must transition to managing his own health care when he develops an ear infection. This module shows how the young man's mother partners with him to help him seek appropriate health care, and then partners with the nurse practitioner at the college health center to provide information about accommodations specific to her son's needs. Common characteristics of AS and appropriate nursing interventions in response to these characteristics are illustrated during nursing assessment, treatment, and discharge teaching, with a focus on enhancing self-reliance in medical self-care within a supportive caring partnership.

Course Objectives:

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

• the partnership triad among nurse, client, and caregiver.
• how the environmental context affects the situation presented in this scenario.
• how the client's and caregiver's personal contexts affect the situation described in this scenario.
• at least three common characteristics of persons who have Asperger's syndrome.
• how the limitations associated with Asperger's syndrome can influence nursing care.
• how to modify nursing interventions when caring for persons with Asperger's syndrome based on their responses to care.
• the nurse's role as advocate and educator for persons with Asperger's syndrome in a college health setting.

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.