A homeless client has presented in the ED with a bacterial infection i

A homeless client has presented in the ED with a bacterial infection in a hand wound. The nurse has cleansed and dressed the wound, and an initial dose of an antibiotic has been administered.

The client will need the antibiotic prescription filled and a dressing change in 3 days. In order to ensure that the client will receive the appropriate follow-up care, the nurse must first act as the client’s:
1. Educator
2. Advocate
3. Caregiver
4. Counselor

ANSWER

ANS: 2
Client advocacy perhaps is more important today because of the confusion surrounding access to health care services. Your clients often need someone to help them walk through the system, identify where to go for services and tell them how to reach the individuals with the appropriate authority, what services to request, and how to follow through with the information they re-ceived. The role of the educator is to help the client assume responsibility for his or her own health care. This client has been educated to the needs related to caring for the infection but needs the nurse advocate to assist with facilitating the care. As caregiver, the nurse manages and cares for the client’s health. You apply the nursing process (see Unit III) in a critical thinking ap-proach to ensure appropriate, individualized nursing care for specific clients and their families. This client’s nursing care has been appropriated delivered and so that nursing role has been ful-filled. A counselor assists clients in identifying and clarifying health problems and in choosing appropriate courses of action to solve those problems. The client is first in need of assistance in dealing with the obstacles to the care of the identified problem—infection.