Medication Management for the Older Adult

Simulator Quick Start Guide

Welcome to Interactive Case Studies for Nurses. This program is designed to allow students to

experience patient encounters in a variety of settings. You should proceed through your case study just as you

would through a patient assessment: receive patient report; take supplemental history; conduct a focused

physical exam; and develop nursing diagnoses and a nursing care plan . In this program when you exit the exam

room after completing your assessment and plan you will go to a conference room in which you will be able to

view the standard case summary completed by an “expert” alongside your case review.

Reception Area

In the reception area, you will be greeted by the receptionist. Mouse over the case folders to view a brief case

summary or “report” for the selected case. Select the case by clicking on the folder. A brief case summary will

appear.

Once in the exam room, use the buttons across the bottom of the screen to complete the case, much as you

would when caring for a real patient. Each of the Patient Care buttons is described below. These buttons will

remain constant as you progress through the case. You will be able to go back to any of these fields during your

review of the case. The Patient Chart will store the results of your history questions and physical assessments

for later reference. The chart can be moved and/or minimized. When you have completed the case, click Leave

Room to review your patient care with an expert.

Patient History

When you click on the patient history button a list of patient history options will appear separated across four

tabs. Click to ask questions you consider appropriate to care of this patient. Try to avoid asking unnecessary

questions, this should be a focused patient history. The information requested will automatically be added to

the current history information and the Patient Chart. Click Close Patient History when finished, you may at

any time return to Patient History and make more selections.

Physical Assessment

Clicking on this button reveals a model with hotspots representing available physical exams. Select the systems

that are pertinent to the care of this patient one at a time. You will be provided with information describing the

physical findings. The hotspots will turn red to indicate that you have conducted the associated assessment and

the findings will be copied to the Patient Chart. Icons for Blood Pressure, General Appearance, and Diagnostic

Tests are available on the right hand side of the assessment window.

Nursing Diagnosis

Based on your assessment of this patient, provide a nursing diagnosis and a detailed rationale for choosing that

diagnosis. Try to incorporate what you learned in the Essential Content section.

Nursing Care Plan

Based on your assessment of this patient, provide a nursing diagnosis and a detailed rationale for choosing it.

Again, these should correspond to what you learned in the content module associated with this case.

Leave Room

Leaving the room will end the case. You will be asked if you are finished with the case. If you are finished, you

will be taken to the conference room where you will review the case with the expert. To view the expert

summary and compare it to yours click on the expert on the nurse’s desk. Once you have reviewed the side by

side summary, you can submit your patient care record to an email address or close the case review and exit the

case by clicking any of the other tabs. To choose another case, click on the Content Application Tab.

Art Direction/Designer: Scott Fleming

Programmer: Ros Adulseranee

Content Developer: Jason Underwood

Simulator adapted with permission from SimClinic ©2006 Diana Mertens and Jason Underwood. All rights

reserved.