Maria Case Study
An additional assessment I would do is to ask about her productivity in the last few months after she started realizing the increase in weight (Gabehart, 2003). I would also ask her if she has experienced frequent infections and diseases.
Some of the health concerns for Maria is the long hours she takes in class weekly, in addition to 12 hours of labs and clinical she also essentially maintains the house like cooking shopping cleaning and driving the children to school. A risk factor is that she only sleeps for five hours, which does not give her enough rest after all the day’s work. From the assessment, she drinks coffee and diet cola to keep her awake and going; this means she is straining her body. She does not give her body rest to relax and de-stress and even says she has no time for such.
Maria has to increase her time for sleep because she is working a lot in the day and gets insufficient rest. She should create time to relax her body and de-stress. Also, Maria may hire a house girl or a baby sitter to help her with some of the tasks at home, so she gets enough time to rest and concentrating on her studies. She should maintain healthy eating.
Diagnosis
Maria is a 40-year-old Hispanic woman suffering from exhaustion and burnout. The patient is experiencing weight gain, raised blood pressure, and constant tiredness, which she avoids by drinking coffee and diet cola. The problem most likely rose from the demanding schoolwork, and therefore balancing with the daily tasks in the house becomes difficult. Her body is in constant stress, which has made it respond with weight gain: there is an alteration in the normal metabolism. Factors influencing progression are lack of enough sleep, home duties, and long hours of school.
Reference
Gabehart, R. A. (2003). Overwork and Stress: The Need for Policy on Working Hours in the Healthcare Professions.