Module 1: Acute and Chronic Ilnesses Flashcards
Why is the nurses knowledge of characteristic patterns of acute and chronic diseases critical?
developing their clinical reasoning skills
and in the provision of safe and effective care for patients.
What is acute illness and give eg?
Curable, relatively short, e.g. pneumonia, traumas, MI
What is chronic illness, give an example and what are it’s implications?
Long term (generally 3 months or longer), non-curable, often associated with disability, but not always
Implications:
- Learning to live with
- coming to terms with
- transforms identity
- changes role relationships
- disrupts the living of life
o Common chronic diseases: Cancer, COPD, cardiovascular, diabetes
- Can be communicable eg. Hep C, HIV
What is the nurses role and management and prevention of chronic disease?
· Across the lifespan
· Nursing assessment:
o First point of contact?
o Whole patient picture (family, sociocultural, socioeconomic, etc.)
o Patient-centred health education
o Advocacy
o Quality of life (research and practice)
What are the modifiable risk factors of chronic illness?
- smoking
- unhealthy diet
- physical inactivity
- overweight
- low income or disadvanataged groups
What are the non-modifiable risk factors of chronic illness?
- Gender
- Sex
- Genetics
- Race
What are the characteristic patterns of chronic illness?
- Involves various phases.
- Adherence is important.
- Snowball effect - complications that lead to other conditions.
- Person and family are all affected.
- Burden falls on family and person rather than HCPs.
- Management = fine tuning.
- Complex, requiring collaborative effort.
- Uncertain.
- Costly, challenging, and ethically troublesome.
What are the phases of Corbin and Strauss’ Illness Trajectory Model?
- Pretrajectory.
- Trajectory.
- Stable.
- Unstable.
- Acute.
- Crisis.
- Comeback.
- Downward.
- Dying.
How do nurses care for people living with chronic illness?
- Identify trajectory phase of patient and create nursing diagnosis.
- Establish goals.
- Plan to achieve desired outcomes.
- Identify factors that facilitate/hinder attainment of goals.
- Implement interventions.
- Evaluate effectiveness of interventions.
What is a chronic condition?
Health problems from disabilities or disease that require long-term care (over three months).
o A specific condition may be a result5 of illness, persistent communicable infectious disease, genetic factors, or injury.
o Management of such conditions includes learning to live with symptoms and/or disabilities and coming to terms with life changes brought about.
What variables are affected by adjustments to chronic conditions?
o Personality before the illness
o Unresolved anger or grief from the past (trauma)
o Suddenness, extent, and duration of lifestyle changes from illness
o Family and individual resources for dealing with stress
o Stages of the individual/family life cycle
o Previous experience with illness and crises
What are the risk factors for chronic conditions in Canada?
o Smoking
o Unhealthy diet
o Physical inactivity
o Overweight/obesity
Describe the PREJECTORY phase of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic illness Trajectory model
- Genetic factors
- life circumstances, or
- behaviours…
that place an individual or community at risk for the development of a chronic condition.
Describe the TRAJECTORY ONSET phase of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic illness Trajectory model
- Appearance of noticeable symptoms
includes period of diagnostic workup and announcement of diagnosis may be accompanies by biographic limbo as person begins to discover and cope with implications of the diagnosis.
Describe the STABLE phase of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic illness Trajectory model
Illness course and symptoms are under control; biography and everyday life activities are being managed within limitations of illness; illness management centered in the home.
Describe the UNSTABLE phase of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic illness Trajectory model
Period of instability to keep symptoms under control or reactivation of illness; social and biographic disruption and difficulty in carrying out everyday life activities; adjustments being made in regimen, with care usually taking place at home.
Describe the ACUTE phase of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic illness Trajectory model
Severe and unrelieved symptoms or the development of illness complications necessitating hospitalization or bed rest to bring illness course under control; biography and everyday life activities temporarily placed on hold or drastically cut back.
Describe the CRISIS phase of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic illness Trajectory model
Critical or life-threatening situation requiring emergency treatment or care; biography and everyday life activities suspended until the crisis passes.
Describe the COMEBACK phase of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic illness Trajectory model
Gradual return to an acceptable way of life within limits imposed by disability or illness; involves physical healing, stretching limitations through rehabilitative procedures, psychosocial coming to terms, and biographic re-engagement with adjustments in everyday life activities.
Describe the DOWNWARD phase of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic illness Trajectory model
rapid or gradual physical decline accompanied by increasing disability or difficulty in controlling symptoms, requires biographic adjustment and alterations in everyday life activities with each major downward step.
Describe the DYING phase of Corbin and Strauss’s Chronic illness Trajectory model
Final days or weeks before death; characterized by gradual or rapid shutting down of body processes, biographic disengagement and closure, and relinquishment of everyday life interests and activities.
What can a specific chronic condition be a result of?
illness, persistent communicable infectious disease, genetic factors, or injury.
Management of chronic illness involves…?
Management of chronic illness involves management of physical, social, emotional and psychological problems.
What are the 11 characteristics and Patterns of Chronic Conditions
Characteristics and Patterns of Chronic Conditions
- Management of chronic illness involves management of physical social, emotional and psychological problems.
- Chronic conditions usually involve many different phases over the course of a person’s life. There can be acute periods, stable and unstable periods, flare-ups, and remissions.
- An important component of chronic disease management is adherence to therapeutic regimens; however, it is important to remember that disease management regimens are only one part of a life lived with chronic disease and the complexities, demands, and priorities of life can create challenges to adherence.
- One chronic disease can lead to the development of other chronic conditions.
- Chronic illness affects the whole family. Family life can be altered as a result of role reversals, role conflicts, loss of income, time spent managing the illness, decrease in family socialization activities and[MW1] their families.
- The major responsibility of everyday management of chronic illness falls upon the shoulders of chronically ill people and their families.
- Learning to manage chronic conditions is a developmental process of trail and error, discovery, and a fine tuning of understanding related to the meaning of self-care decisions.
- Managing chronic conditions is a collaborative process.
- The medical management of chronic conditions is expensive.
- Chronic conditions raise difficult ethical issues for the patient, health care professionals, and society.
- Living with chronic illness means living with uncertainty.
