Module 1: Part 1 - Acute and Chronic Illness Flashcards
Give 3 characteristic of ACUTE illness
- Rapid onset
- Short duration
- Curable
What is an example of an ACUTE illness?
Pneumonia, trauma, or MI
Give 3 characteristics of CHRONIC illness
- Long-term (generally lasts 3+ months)
- Non-curable
- Often (but not always) associated with disability
What is an example of a CHRONIC illness?
COPD, diabetes, CA
What are some implications of CHRONIC disease?
- Pts must learn to live with illness
- They must come to terms with the illness
- Accept that CHRONIC illness may transform their identity and change role relationships
What is adjustment to CHRONIC illness affected by?
- Personality before the illness
- Unresolved anger or grief from the past
- Suddenness, extent, and duration of lifestyle changes necessitated by the illness
- Family and individual resources for dealing with stress
- Stages of the individual/family life cycle
- Previous experience with illness and crises
What are four modifiable risk factors for the development of CHRONIC illness?
Smoking, unhealthy diet, inactivity, obesity
What are four non-modifiable risk factors?
Age, gender, race, genetics
What factors are contributing to the rising costs ($$$) of CHRONIC illness?
- aging population
- longer life with chronic disease
- rising drug and treatment costs
- economic inflation
- new technology
T or F:
The focus of nursing is on the human reaction to disruptions in health
T
What is one of the most important components of CHRONIC illness management?
Adherence to Tx
Explain the “snowball effect” in relation to CHRONIC illness
CHRONIC illnesses often lead to the development of other conditions
T or F:
Only the pt is affected by CHRONIC illness
F - the whole family is affected because this causes a disrupting to the normal family life, role change, money, stress, stigma
Who does the burden of care fall onto?
The family, nurses can provide support, teaching, etc but majority of care is done by pt family
Is teaching about living with CHRONIC illness ever really the same as actually living with it?
No
Is management of CHRONIC illness “one size fits all”?
No, there is much fine tuning to be done as the responses to certain Txs are evaluated
Are CHRONIC illnesses treated only by nurses? Why?
No, because of the complexity of CHRONIC illnesses, there is usually a team of people involved with care
CHRONIC illness are costly, challenging, and __________ troublesome
Ethically
T or F:
CHRONIC illness is certain
F, CHRONIC illness is uncertain
What are the phases of CHRONIC disease?
- Pretrajectory
- Trajectory
- Stable
- Unstable
- Acute
- Crisis
- Comeback
- Downward
- Dying
What happens during the PRETRAJECTORY phase?
Genetic factors or lifestyle behaviours that predispose an individual or community at risk for the development of a chronic condition
What happens during the TRAJECTORY phase?
onset of symptoms, waiting diagnosis
What happens during the STABLE phase?
managing symptoms
What happens during the UNSTABLE phase?
worsening of symptoms
