Ch.3 Health, Illness & Disparities

How many levels are there of preventative care and illness promotion?

3. Primary, secondary, tertiary

How do basic human needs influence health and illness?

A basic human need is something essential that must be met for emotional and physiologic health and survival. A person whose needs are met may be considered to be healthy, and a person who has one or more unmet needs is at an increased risk for illness.

What are the effects of illness on the family?

A chronic illness creates stress for the patient and family because of possible lifelong alterations in roles or lifestyle, frequent hospitalizations, economic problems, and decreased social interactions among family members. The responses of family members to an illness are also individualized. Some family members want to be with the patient all the time, while others might avoid visiting. Parents of a sick child often react with blame, overprotection, and severe anxiety, and family members of patients requiring intensive care often feel alone and frightened. In both cases, they might also feel guilty and imagine the worst possible outcome.

What are risk factors for illness or injury?

A risk factor is something that increases a person's chances for illness or injury. Like other components of health and illness, risk factors are often interrelated. Risk factors may be further defined as modifiable (things a person can change, such as quitting smoking) or nonmodifiable (things that cannot be changed, such as a family history of cancer). As a person's number of risk factors increases, so does the possibility of illness. For example, an overweight executive under pressure to increase sales may smoke and drink alcohol in excess. These factors, combined with a family history of heart disease, place this person at higher risk for illness.

Illness behavior Stage 4

Achieving Recovery and Rehabilitation. Recovery and rehabilitation might begin in the hospital and conclude at home, or may be totally concluded at a rehabilitation center or at home. Most patients complete this final stage of illness behavior at home. In this stage, the person gives up the dependent role and resumes normal activities and responsibilities. If the plan of care includes health education, the person may return to health at a higher level of functioning and health than before the illness.

Illness behavior Stage 3

Assumes a dependent role. This stage is characterized by the patient's decision to accept the diagnosis and follow the prescribed treatment plan. Patient may want someone to take care of them.

Illness behavior Stage 2

Assumes the sick role. Depending on individual health beliefs and practices, the person may choose to do nothing, may research symptoms on Internet sources, may buy over-the-counter medications, may try alternative remedies to relieve symptoms, or may seek out a health care provider for diagnosis and treatment.

What are the concepts of disease and illness?

Disease is a medical term, referring to pathologic changes in the structure or function of the body or mind. An illness is 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.

Illness behavior Stage 1

Experiencing symptoms that won't go away.

What is sociocultural dimension?

Health practices and beliefs are strongly influenced by a person's economic level, lifestyle, family, and culture. In general, low-income groups, racial and ethnic minorities, and other underserved populations are less likely to seek medical care to prevent illness and have fewer treatment options, while high-income groups are more prone to stress-related habits and illness. The family and the culture to which a person belongs influence the person's patterns of living and values about health and illness; such patterns are often unalterable. All of these factors are involved in personal care, patterns of eating, lifestyle habits, and emotional stability. Examples of other sociocultural situations that influence health and illness are an adolescent who sees nothing wrong with smoking or drinking because her parents smoke and drink, parents of a sick infant who do not seek medical care because they have no health insurance, a single parent (abused as a child) who in turn physically abuses her own small son, and a person of Asian descent who uses herbal remedies and acupuncture to treat an illness.

What is emotional dimension?

How the mind affects body functions and responds to body conditions also influences health. Long-term stress affects body systems, and anxiety affects health habits; conversely, calm acceptance and relaxation can actually change the body's responses to illness. As examples of the negative effects of emotions,astudent may always have diarrhea before examinations and an adolescent with poor self-esteem may begin to experiment with drugs. The positive effects of emotions include reducing surgical pain with relaxation techniques and reducing blood pressure with biofeedback skills. This is modifiable.

Summarize the role of the nurse in promoting health, preventing illness, and addressing disparities in health care.

Nurses must take care of their own health to be able to give effective nursing care to others. Good personal health enables nurses not only to practice more efficiently but also to serve as role models for patients and families. Nurses can help patients acquire new health behaviors by modeling the very behaviors they are trying to promote. It is difficult for nurses to be sincerely attentive to the needs of patients when their own needs are not being met. Because no one is perfectly healthy all of the time, nurses who are preparing for professional practice should spend time getting to know themselves. From this self-knowledge should come a commitment to actively pursue holistic health. Know your resources available to that patient in that community. Ask social worker about recourses in the area if you don't know them. Knowledge of health care trends: You will receive mailings from the BON with new trends and changes to health care constantly. Knowledge of insurance companies: They are changing all the time and its up to us to know what is going on in the health care arena. So we can help the patient by talking to them about those changes. Know the changes and how they effect your patients.

How does self concept influence illness and health?

People who like themselves and have a positive self image are less likely to get sick or stay sick. It's all about the power of the brain and the mind.

What are the 6 human dimensions?

Physical dimension, emotional dimension, intellectual dimension, environmental dimension, sociocultural dimension, spiritual dimension

Explain the level of primary health promotion and illness.

Primary health promotion and illness prevention are directed toward promoting health and preventing the development of disease processes or injury. Nursing activities at the primary level may focus on people or groups. Examples of primary-level activities are immunization clinics, family planning services, providing poison-control information, and accident-prevention education. Other nursing interventions include teaching about a healthy diet, the importance of regular exercise, safety in industry and farms, using seat belts, and safer sex practices.Health-risk assessments are an important part of primary health promotion and preventive care. A health-risk assessment is an assessment of the total person. The resulting "picture" of the person indicates areas of risk for disease or injury as well as areas that support health.

Explain the level of secondary health promotion and illness.

Secondary health promotion and illness prevention focus on screening for early detection of disease with prompt diagnosis and treatment of any found. The goals of secondary preventive care are to identify an illness, reverse or reduce its severity or provide a cure, and thereby return the person to maximum health as quickly as possible.Examples of nursing activities at this level are assessing children for normal growth and development and encouraging regular medical, dental, and vision examinations. Otheractivities include screenings (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol, and skin cancer), recommending gynecologic examinations and mammograms for women at appropriate ages, and teaching testicular self-examination to men. Direct nursing care interventions at the secondary level include administering medications and caring for wounds.

What is spiritual dimension?

Spiritual beliefs and values are important components of a person's health and illness behaviors. It is important that nurses respect these values and understand their importance for the individual patient. Examples of the influences of the spiritual dimension on health care include the Roman Catholic requirement of baptism for both live births and stillborn babies; kosher dietary laws, prohibiting the intake of pork and shellfish, practiced by Orthodox and Conservative Jews; and opposition to blood transfusion, common to Jehovah's Witnesses.

Explain the level of tertiary health promotion and illness.

Tertiary health promotion and illness prevention begins after an illness is diagnosed and treated, with the goal of reducing disability and helping rehabilitate patients to a maximum level of functioning. Nursing activities on a tertiary level include teaching a patient with diabetes how to recognize and prevent complications, using physical therapy to prevent contractures in a patient who has had a stroke or spinal cord injury, and referring a woman to a support group after removal of a breast because of cancer. Nurses play an important role in monitoring the responses of the patient to the prescribed therapy and in providing services to facilitate the patient's recovery or improve quality of life while living with the effects of an illness or injury.

What is environmental dimension?

The environment has many influences on health and illness. Housing, sanitation, climate, and pollution of air, food, and water are elements in the environmental dimension. Examples of environmental causes of illness include deaths in older adults from inadequate heating and cooling, an increased incidence of asthma and respiratory problems in large cities with smog, and an increased incidence of skin cancer in people who live in hot, sunny areas of the world.

How do human dimensions influence health and illness?

The factors influencing a person's health-illness status, health beliefs, and health practices relate to the person's human dimensions. Each dimension interrelates with each of the others and influences the person's behaviors in both health and illness.

What is intellectual dimension?

The intellectual dimension encompasses cognitive abilities, educational background, and past experiences. These influence the person's responses to teaching about health and reactions to nursing care during illness. They also play a major role in health behaviors. Examples involving this dimension include a young college student with diabetes who follows a diabetic diet but drinks beer and eats pizza with friends several times a week, and a middle-aged man who quits taking his high-blood-pressure medication after developing unpleasant side effects. Patients that have more knowledge have the ability to understand and do better over all. Patients who can't read or have confusion don't learn as well. We can't teach those who do not want to hear what we have to say.

What is physical dimension?

The physical dimension includes genetic inheritance, age, developmental level, race, and gender. These components strongly influence the person's health status and health practices. For example, inherited genetic disorders include Down syndrome, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and color blindness. Toddlers are at greater risk for drowning, and adolescents and young adult males are at greater risk for automobile crashes from excessive speed. There are specific racial traits for disease, including sickle cell anemia, hypertension, and stroke. A young woman whose mother and grandmother had breast cancer is more likely to have an annual clinical breast examination and mammogram. It is non modifiable.

What is illness behavior?

When a person becomes ill, certain illness behaviors may occur in identifiable stages. These behaviors are how people cope with altered functioning caused by the disease. They are unique to the person and are influenced by age, gender, family values, economic status, culture, educational level, and mental status. There is no specific timetable for the stages-of-illness behaviors, which may occur rapidly or slowly.