The role of the nurse in diagnosing Lyme disease: a clinical case report
Information for nursing staff, 2025, 57(1), 35-37.
I. Miteva1, V. Valtchev2
1 Department of Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, Medical University – Sofia
2 Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Sport, National Sports Academy „Vasil Levski” – Sofia
Abstract. Clinical Case Description: We present a clinical case of a 72-year-old man with a long-standing disease of multiple sclerosis. The purpose of the presented case is to demonstrate the important role of the nurse in communicating with patients for the timely establishment of an adequate diagnosis by the doctor. The patient was afebrile and lethargic, so he contacted with his GP’s nurse by mobile phone. He informed her about the current symptoms, and also shared that due to the lack of effect of the therapy prescribed by his doctor for multiple sclerosis, he turned to alternative folk medicine. The nurse showed interest and conducted a detailed conversation about the patient activities. After learning that the patient has drunk blood from a tortoise, the nurse immediately contacted a laboratory and sent a laboratory technician to the patient’s home to collect blood for testing. As a result of the obtained laboratory data, the patient was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Antibiotic and antipyretic therapy has been successful for the treatment of Lyme disease. The role of the nurse in communicating with patients is great. Because of the more frequent direct contact with patients, nurses enjoy the trust of patients, and they tend to share more details with them than with their treating physicians. That is why, good communication skills of the nurse are of particular importance and help the doctor in establishing the degree of adherence of the patient to the therapy, undertaken self-treatments and other information that could help in the correct diagnosis of the patient.
Key words: Lyme disease, patient-nurse communication, nurse-laboratory technician-physician collaboration