Acute and Chronic Diseases Flashcards
What is an acute disease?
illness that is usually short in duration, can be cured
What is a chronic disease?
illness that lasts more than 3 months, can’t usually be cured, may be associated with disabilities, is non-communicable, requires long-term management
What are the 11 characteristic patterns of chronic illness?
1) medical, emotional, psychological stress
2) have different phases (controlled, exacerbations)
3) non-compliance to therapeutic regimens
4) can lead to secondary conditions
5) affects the whole family
6) center of care is the home, the healthcare system is supportive
7) learning to manage is a trial and error process, takes time
8) management is a collaborative process
9) management is expensive
10) ethical issues are often involved (quality of life, scarce resources)
11) chronic illness means living with uncertainty
What are the different phases of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic Illness Trajectory Model?
1) pretrajectory phase (at risk for development)
2) trajectory phase (appearance of signs and symptoms, testing, uncertainty)
3) stable phase (symptoms managed)
4) unstable phase (exacerbation, complication
5) acute phase (sudden onset of severe unrelieved symptoms requiring hospitalization)
6) crisis phase (life-threatening situation)
7) comeback phase (recovery after acute phase)
8) downward phase (worsening condition, decline)
9) dying phase
What are nursing priorities in developing a care plan for someone with a chronic illness?
- managing symptoms
- avoiding complications and development of another other illness
- maintain/improve quality of life
What are 4 major types of chronic illness?
1) cardiovascular disease
2) cancer
3) chronic respiratory diseases
4) diabetes
What are common risk factors to the four major types of chronic illness?
1) obesity
2) unhealthy diet
3) inactivity
4) smoking
also: hyperlipidemia, hypertension, genetics, hyperglycemia, harmful use of alcohol
