Interview a friend or family member about that person’s experiences with the health care system. You may develop your own list of questions.
Suggested interview questions:
Did a patient education representative give you instructions on how to care for yourself after your illness or operation?
Did a health care professional, pharmacist, nurse, doctor, or elder counselor advise you on your medication, diet, or exercise?
Who assisted you at home after your illness or operation?
Do you know of any assistance services, i.e., food, transportation, medication, that would help you stay in your home as you get older?
Sample Paper
Interview
The interviewed patient was a 65-year-old man who was diagnosed with diabetes a decade ago. The patient has therefore been managing his condition for a decade.
Did a patient education representative give you instructions on how to care for yourself after your illness or operation?
Yes, I received a lot of instruction on how to take care of myself after my diabetes diagnosis and recently after my hypertension diagnosis. When I was first diagnosed with diabetes ten years ago, I was assigned a patient education representative who guided me on various ways of managing my blood sugar levels which included certain changes in my lifestyle. The patient education representative advised me on the food that I needed to eat to maintain normal blood glucose levels and also referred me to a local trainer who would help me perform frequent physical activities, which also helped me to significantly control my blood sugar levels. The patient education representative was also involved in teaching me how to consistently monitor my blood sugar and how to take my insulin doses to control my blood sugar levels. The patient education representative also advised me to avoid activities that had high chances of bringing injuries (Yakaryılmaz & Öztürk, 2017).
Did a health care professional, pharmacist, nurse, doctor, or elder counselor advise you on your medication, diet, or exercise?
My diagnosis with diabetes, the doctor who attended to me prescribed an insulin dose and referred me to the nurse. The nurse taught me how to administer insulin and how to monitor my blood sugar levels and also advised me on the frequency of monitoring my blood sugar levels and the levels in which I would need an insulin injection. The nurse also told me how to inject myself with insulin. The nurse then referred me to the pharmacist, who gave me an insulin dosage and also advised me on when I would take another dose(Longo et al., 2019). Finally, I was referred to an elder counselor who advised me on the importance of a healthy diet and exercise in managing diabetes(Sesti et al., 2018). The elder counselor advised that I should increase my intake of fruits and vegetables and cut my consumption of heavily refined food with sugars such as fast food and soft drinks. The elder counselor also advised me that I need to be performing daily physical activities, including walking. Physical exercises would significantly help me improve blood sugar control. The elder counselor also referred me to a local community nurse who visited my home and helped me to draw up a meal plan and come up with an exercise regime. The community health nurse also connected me with the local trainer who was involved in my daily physical activities and monitoring my progress (Leung et al., 2018).
Who assisted you at home after your illness or operation?
After my diabetes diagnosis, my wife played a significant role in assisting at home. My wife helped to prepare healthy meals for me, including increasing their portion of vegetables and fruit in my diet. My wife also supported me in my physical activities and was involved in taking me for daily walks that contributed significantly towards the improvement of my medical condition.
Do you know of any assistance services, i.e., food, transportation, medication, that would
help you stay in your home as you get older?
Currently, I am not aware of any assistance services such as medication, transportation, and food that could help me stay in my home as I get older. However, I’m very confident that I can rely on my wife and my children to assist me access services such as transportation, medication, and food as I get older. Generally, I believe that family is the most important thing as one gets older as they can help one to be able to take care of themselves adequately.
References
Longo, M., Bellastella, G., Maiorino, M. I., Meier, J. J., Esposito, K., & Giugliano, D. (2019). Diabetes and Aging: From Treatment Goals to Pharmacologic Therapy. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2019.00045
Sesti, G., Antonelli Incalzi, R., Bonora, E., Consoli, A., Giaccari, A., Maggi, S., Paolisso, G., Purrello, F., Vendemiale, G., & Ferrara, N. (2018). Management of diabetes in older adults. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, 28(3), 206–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.numecd.2017.11.007
Yakaryılmaz, F. D., & Öztürk, Z. A. (2017). Treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the elderly. World Journal of Diabetes, 8(6), 278. https://doi.org/10.4239/wjd.v8.i6.278
