Health and Illness Flashcards
Chronic illness
Comes on gradual, long lasting from months to a lifetime.
Examples: diabetes, CHF
Acute illness
Comes on quick, doesn’t last very long. Disease you can recover from.
Exacerbation
When the disease comes back. What can make the disease get worst. The symptoms of the disease comes back.
Holistic care
Caring for the whole person, not just the disease.
Morbidity
how frequently a disease occurs
Mortality
numbers of deaths.
Caused by a disease.
Remission
(when the disease is present, but the person does not experience symptoms).
Risk factors
The very young and the elderly are at high risk for disease.
something that increases a person’s chances for illness or injury.
Health
health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (World Health Organization, 1974).
Wellness
active state of being healthy by living a lifestyle that promotes good physical, mental, and emotional health.
Illness
the response of the person to a disease; it is an abnormal process in which the person’s level of functioning is changed when compared with a previous level.
Disease
is a medical term, meaning that there is a patho- logic change in the structure or function of the body or mind.
Primary objectives of a nurse as caregiver
are to promote health, to prevent illness, to restore health, and to facilitate coping with illness, disability, or death.
Levels of preventive care
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Primary health prevention
illness prevention is directed toward promoting health and preventing the development of disease processes or injury
Secondary health prevention
focuses on screening for early detection of disease with prompt diagnosis and treatment of those found.
Tertiary
begins after an illness is diagnosed and treated to reduce disability and to help rehabilitate patients to a maximum level of functioning.
What are health beliefs?
May be based on fact, common sense, long standing traditions or myths.
Some are based in science and medicine and some in popular culture.
Individual education, culture, ethnicity, and religion.
Can be positive and negative.
Health belief model
(Rosenstock, 1974) is concerned with what people perceive, or believe, to be true about themselves in relation to their health. This model is based on three components of individual perceptions of threat of a disease: (1) perceived susceptibility to a disease, (2) perceived seriousness of a disease, and (3) perceived benefits of action.
Health promotion model
(Pender, Murdaugh, & Parsons, 2006) was developed to illustrate how people interact with their environment as they pursue health. The model incorporates individual characteristics and experiences and behavior-specific knowledge and beliefs, to motivate health-promoting behavior.
Health-Illness continuum
one way to measure a person’s level of health.
This model views health as a constantly changing state, with high-level wellness and death being on opposite ends of a graduated scale, or continuum.
Agent-Host-Enviroment
Leavell and Clark (1965), is useful for examining the causes of disease in an individual. An agent is an environmental factor or stressor that must be present or absent for an illness to occur.
Stages of illness
- Experiencing symptoms - how a person defines themselves as being sick.
- Assuming the sick role - seeks validation of this experience from others, gives up normal activities, and assumes a “sick role.”
- Assuming a dependent role - accept the diagnosis and follow the prescribed treatment plan.
- Recovery and rehabilitation - person gives up the dependent role and resumes normal activities and responsibilities.
Impact of illness on family
Behavior / emotional change Family role Body image Self- concept Family dynamics