Accord？ng to Gordon’s Funct？onal Health Patterns:Nurs？ng Care of The Pat？ents w？th Amyotroph？c Lateral Scleros？s: A Case Report

Introduction: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease which especially involves upper and lower motor neurons.ALS brings burden on the patients and caregivers in social and economical aspects and it affects the qualty of life in a negative fashion. Observation of the general condition of the patient, maintanance of the multi aspect coordination and coomunication, psycological support of the patient and the caregiver, education acoording to the needs, symptom control and preperation to the end of life are the major responsibilies of the nurses who are taking care of ALS patients. Purpose:In this study we aimed to evaluate the requirements of ALS patients according to Gordon’s functional health patterns assesment and restructure the nurses’s assignments accordingly. Conclusion: In our study a 43 year old male patient with ALS was hospitalized in the intensive care unit due to respiratory distress and weakness of the hand muscles. He was evaluated according to functional health assesment tool in respect to 11 different functional patterns and risk of self harming, activity intolerance, distrupted sleep pattern, information deficiency, parenthood-role conflicts were detected and appropriate interventions were made accrding to the international nursey guidelines. Results: According to the Functional Health Patterns Model, the most problematic areas in the patient with ALS are nutrition, sleep, excretion, security-protection, activity-rest, self-perception. Functional Health Patterns Model can be used as an easy and useful model for identifying the care needs of individuals with ALS and implementing nursing interventions. The data obtained in this way will provide the nurses with the opportunity to develop diagnostic nursing record forms and record keeping, which are easier to care for diagnostic-specific