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Case Study: Irritable Infants

Note: Since this is your first foundational nursing class, this case study deals with an everyday, common situation – babysitting. This scenario was deliberately chosen since many of you may not have experience in hospital settings. The goal of this case is to learn how to apply the nursing process and sound reasoning to a low-pressure “patient” scenario.

Case: You are babysitting twin 9-month old siblings; you have been caring for them for approximately 3 hours when they both gradually become irritable. This then transitions to non-stop crying over the span of 30 minutes.

Based on your current knowledge and introduction to the nursing process, please address:

• Which assessment technique you would employ to assist in determining the situation (comprehensive, problem-oriented, or focused).
• Identify what assessment data are pertinent and what critical thinking measures you took to arrive at these conclusions.
• Hypothesize a nursing diagnosis (or medical or collaborative) and support.
• Identify one goal and one expected outcome for this situation.
• Describe the best communication technique that you would use with these two infants to illustrate caring and patient-centered care.