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
Nurse’s role in health and illness
Establish trust Gather health history, chief complaint, history of present illness. Greet and introduce their self. Prepare clients room. Orient patient to their surroundings. Competent with skills / assessment
Allopathic
the term generally used to describe “traditional” medical care, dominant for about 100 years, which spearheaded remarkable advances in biotechnology, surgical interventions, pharmaceutical approaches, and diagnostic tools.
Of the following statements, which is most true of health and illness?
a. Health and illness are the same for all people.
b. Health and illness are individually defined by each person.
c. People with acute illnesses are actually healthy.
d. People with chronic illnesses have poor health beliefs.
b. Each person defines health and illness individually,
based on a number of factors.
A nurse has volunteered to give influenza injections at a local clinic. What level of care is he demonstrating?
a. Tertiary
b. Secondary
c. Primary
d. Promotive
c. Giving influenza injections is an example of primary health promotion and illness prevention.
A nurse’s neighbor tells her, “I have a high temperature, feel awful, and I am not going to work.” What stage of illness behavior is the neighbor exhibiting?
a. Experiencing symptoms
b. Assuming the sick role
c. Assuming a dependent role
d. Achieving recovery and rehabilitation
b. When people assume the sick role, they define themselves as ill, seek validation of this experience from others, and give up normal activities.
A nurse is caring for a patient with heart failure, a chronic illness. Which of the following characteristics is not a part of chronic illness?
a. Permanent change in body structure or function
b. Self-treatment that relieves symptoms
c. Long period of treatment and care
d. Often has remissions and exacerbations
b. Acute illnesses are often self-treated to relieve symptoms.
The agent–host–environment model of health and illness is based on what concept?
a. Risk factors
b. Infectious diseases
c. Behaviors to promote health
d. Stages of illness
a. The interaction of the agent–host–environment creates risk factors that increase the probability of disease.
When providing health promotion classes, a nurse uses concepts from models of health. What do both the health–illness continuum and the high-level wellness models demonstrate?
a. Illness as a fixed point in time
b. The importance of family
c. Wellness as a passive state
d. Health as a constantly changing state
d. Both these models view health as a dynamic (constantly changing state).
Following the birth of his first child and after reading about the long-term effects of nicotine, John decides to stop smoking. This behavior change is most likely based on John’s perceptions of all but one of the following. Which one is not true?
a. His susceptibility to lung cancer
b. How serious lung cancer would be
c. What benefits his stopping smoking will have
d. Personal choice and economic factors
d. Responses a, b, and c are components of the health belief model.
Of the following clinic patients, which one is most likely to have annual breast examinations and mammograms based on the physical human dimension?
a. Jane, because her best friend had a benign breast lump removed
b. Sarah, who lives in a low-income neighborhood
c. Tricia, who has a family history of breast cancer
d. Nancy, because her family encourages regular physical examinations
c. A family history of breast cancer is a major risk factor.
- A nurse is asked to teach a group of young adults a healthy lifestyle. One young man says, “I stopped eating fast foods to lose weight.” What model of health or illness explains this behavior?
a. Health–illness continuum
b. Agent–host–environment model
c. Health promotion model
d. Health belief model
c. The health promotion model illustrates how health-related behaviors and beliefs promote health.
- A nurse follows the guidelines for a healthy lifestyle. How can this promote health in others?
a. By being a role model for healthy behaviors
b. By not requiring sick days from work
c. By never exposing others to any type of illness
d. By spending less money on food
a. Good personal health enables the nurse to serve as a role model for patients and families.
