NU 345 Unit 2 functional health pattern assessment example

Functional Health Pattern Assessment of a 47-Year-Old Long-Haul Truck Driver

Student Name

Department of Nursing, Herzing University

NU 345: Health Assessment and Promotion Across the Life Span

Instructor Name

January 27, 2026

Functional Health Pattern Assessment of a 47-Year-Old Long-Haul Truck Driver

The Person and the Framework

Mr. W., a composite 47-year-old man, has driven long-haul routes for 19 years and is home for four days after every three weeks on the road. He came to a clinic for a commercial driver's medical examination and agreed to a fuller interview. This assessment uses Gordon's 11 functional health patterns, which organize a person's health around how he lives rather than around body systems, and which ask about areas a systems review usually skips, such as roles, sexuality, coping, and values (Gordon, 1994). Every pattern is completed, including those that seemed unremarkable. His words are quoted where they carry meaning.

Health Perception and Health Management

"I'm healthy enough to drive, that's what counts." He has not seen a primary care clinician in six years apart from required driver examinations. He takes no regular medications. He knows his blood pressure was "a bit high" at his last examination and did nothing about it because he felt fine.

Nutritional and Metabolic

Weight 262 pounds, body mass index 36, up about 30 pounds in five years. On the road he eats at truck stops or from the cab: "Breakfast is a sausage biscuit, lunch is whatever's hot at the counter, and dinner is late." He drinks three to four energy drinks a day and little water, because stopping to use a restroom costs time on his schedule.

Elimination

He limits fluids on the road to reduce bathroom stops, and reports constipation most weeks, relieved when he is home. He gets up once or twice at night to urinate. He denies urinary burning or blood.

Activity and Exercise

He drives up to 11 hours a day, the federal limit, and walks mainly between the cab and the truck stop. At home he fishes and does yard work. He gets short of breath climbing the steps into his cab with a load of groceries, which is new in the past year.

Sleep and Rest

"I sleep in the berth, maybe five or six hours, never straight through." His wife says he snores loudly and sometimes stops breathing at night when he is home. He admits to feeling drowsy on afternoon drives and pulling over to nap. On the STOP-Bang screening questions, which combine four symptom questions with four physical and demographic items, he has at least six positive items, indicating a high risk of obstructive sleep apnea (Chung et al., 2008).

Cognitive and Perceptual

Alert and oriented, clear thinking. He wears reading glasses and uses no hearing aid. He reports occasional headaches in the morning. He describes his memory as "fine unless I'm tired."

Self-Perception and Self-Concept

"I'm a good driver and I provide for my family. That's who I am." He is embarrassed by his weight and avoids photographs. He worries that a health problem could cost him his commercial license and, with it, his identity and income.

Role and Relationship

Married 22 years, two teenage children. He misses school events and his son's football games and feels "like a visitor" in his own home. His wife manages the household and finances alone during his trips. They talk by phone nightly.

Sexuality and Reproductive

Asked privately and matter-of-factly, he reports difficulty maintaining erections over the past year, which he has not mentioned to anyone. He attributes it to being tired. He and his wife do not want more children.

Coping and Stress Tolerance

Main stressors: delivery deadlines, traffic, and being away from family. He copes with energy drinks, chewing tobacco, and calling his wife. He does not drink alcohol on the road; he has "a few beers" on days at home. He denies feeling hopeless.

Value and Belief

He is a practicing Baptist who listens to church services on the radio on Sundays when he is driving. His values center on family and self-reliance, and he does not like "going to doctors unless something's broken."

Synthesis: What the Patterns Reveal Together

Several patterns connect. Probable obstructive sleep apnea links his sleep, his daytime drowsiness, his morning headaches, and possibly his erectile difficulty and elevated blood pressure. His work shapes his nutrition, elimination, activity, and roles. His self-concept as a healthy provider, and his fear of losing his license, create a barrier to seeking care, since a diagnosis of sleep apnea could affect his medical certification. A systems review might have recorded an elevated blood pressure and obesity; the functional patterns reveal why they exist in his life and what stands in the way of change. Priorities for the next step are referral for a sleep study, with honest discussion that treated sleep apnea usually allows drivers to keep working; blood pressure confirmation; and a conversation about fluid intake and meals on the road that fits his schedule (Jarvis & Eckhardt, 2024).

References

Chung, F., Yegneswaran, B., Liao, P., Chung, S. A., Vairavanathan, S., Islam, S., Khajehdehi, A., & Shapiro, C. M. (2008). STOP questionnaire: A tool to screen patients for obstructive sleep apnea. Anesthesiology, 108(5), 812-821. https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0b013e31816d83e4

Gordon, M. (1994). Nursing diagnosis: Process and application (3rd ed.). Mosby.

Jarvis, C., & Eckhardt, A. L. (2024). Physical examination and health assessment (9th ed.). Elsevier.