Chronic Illness: Impact and Intervention, Research Paper Example

Persons who struggle with chronic illnesses require specific plans of care and treatment that will have lasting benefits in promoting greater quality of life and wellbeing. However, this is a difficult task to accomplish, given the challenges of securing healthcare services in order to treat these conditions effectively. There is an important challenge in place for nurses to address the need for continuous healthcare services for chronically ill patients and to consider the issues that may limit access, such as insurance provisions or lack thereof. Although the Affordable Care Act was established to enable all persons to have access to health insurance, the system is largely imperfect and does not provide the desired level of support and guidance that is required to address chronic health concerns on a consistent basis. Therefore, nurses must provide knowledge and resources in order to manage patient care needs and expectations in a comprehensive manner that will contribute to improved quality of life. Most importantly, patients must be provided with a means of understanding the different issues that patients with chronic diseases face and must make decisions regarding their care and treatment that are grounded in evidence-based solutions.

The development of interventions to address the issues associated with chronic care requires behavioral modifications in many situations in order to improve health and to minimize the symptoms associated with chronic disease (Taggart et.al, 2012). It is important to emphasize the development of new perspectives that will be used to accommodate patient needs and their ability to self-manage chronic disease more effectively with the support of nurses in primary care and other settings (Taggart et.al, 2012). This must demonstrate the importance of developing an environment in which chronic disease management is expanded and the approach taken will impact their wellbeing in different ways with the goal to minimize symptoms, expand positive behaviors, and improve overall health (Taggart et.al, 2012). It is imperative for nurses to also consider the impact of access to care and the type of services that these patients receive, as this requires a collaborative standard of care that will have lasting benefits for patients over the long term. Since chronic diseases are unique yet complex in nature, nurses must possess the appropriate knowledge and resources that are required to ensure that each patient’s disease state is properly managed.

Cohen’s book Strong at the Broken Places offers an exploration into chronic illness that is complex and thoughtful, examining the needs of individuals who require ongoing treatment for their illnesses, some of which are more serious than others. However, each condition has its significant challenges and requires an individualized strategy and plan of care in order to navigate the difficulties of the healthcare system. For example, Denise, who has ALS, faces a critical uphill battle that is likely to end in tragedy down the road, given that there is no cure for the disease and how it is treated by the healthcare system (Cohen, 2008). For patients such as Denise, there is a critical need to examine the different treatment methods and long-term care strategies that are available to treat patients with ALS, and to also explore the world of clinical trials for this patient population. It is expected that with an increased level of knowledge and attention to the disease, patients such as Denise will not be left in the dark and will receive the desired level of care and treatment without delays. At the same time, a cure for the disease has yet to be discovered, so prolonging the period when symptom formation and overall decline is slowed to a minimum is ideal.

Nurses who advocate for patients with chronic diseases must be prepared to manage the required tasks in order to improve outcomes. This reflects a need to further examine the tools and resources provided by clinical nurse specialists, who have a responsibility to address gaps in the healthcare system that have a direct impact on patients and support the development of new approaches to expand coordinated care and treatment across the healthcare landscape (Moore & McQuestion, 2012). From this perspective, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of evidence-based practice in the treatment of patients with chronic diseases and to address the value of expanding specialty care and knowledge for this purpose (Moore & McQuestion, 2012). Advanced practice nurses must be flexible and adapt to their patient’s needs and emphasize the importance of addressing chronically ill patients with a specialized approach in order to improve their long-term prognosis (Moore & McQuestion, 2012).

The nurse-led interventions that are conducted with patients often reflect the use of a number of different models of care and treatment, such as the Chronic Care Model, in order to impart a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach that will have lasting benefits (Lubkin & Larsen, 2010). This reflects the importance of shaping an environment in which nurses are able to demonstrate an effective means of influencing alternatives that will promote self-care and other objectives (Schulman-Green et.al, 2012). Most importantly, patients must be empowered by nurse-led activities that are designed to support their wellbeing in areas such as self-care (Schulman-Green et.al, 2012). Patients must receive opportunities to improve their health with the assistance of their providers, who must fully embrace their responsibilities in association with adopting a specific model of care. This model is instrumental in enabling patients to receive high quality care and treatment on a comprehensive basis and with the intent to improve health and to address their wellbeing on a long-term basis. These issues reflect a need to emphasize the value of nursing in supporting improved chronic disease management and to provide valuable knowledge and input regarding plans of care.

In my experiences with patients who have chronic illnesses, it is important to recognize that they struggle for a variety of reasons related to their health, including symptom exacerbations, individual behaviors, and limited response to treatments. Therefore, I have recognized that many of these individuals are resilient in spite of their struggles, and in an advocacy role, I must be able to address the needs of my patients with an understanding of the toll that chronic diseases take on their lives. I believe that in order to make a connection with these patients, I must be able to recognize their limitations and identify methods of improving their access to and the quality of their healthcare services in order to have a lasting impact on their lives. For a long time, I believed that chronic illnesses were in part a product of one’s behavior, and although this is still very relevant, many other factors play a role in disease development and symptom formation during its progression. As a result, it is necessary to develop strategies that will be effective in addressing individual patient concerns and opportunities for treatment that will have a positive impact on outcomes.

I believe that in working with patients with chronic diseases, gaining experience provides an opportunity to examine the different areas of need in order to promote their health and wellbeing through proven techniques. At the same time, a compassionate approach to this process is required, particularly when the diagnosis is serious and debilitating, as this creates an even higher level of sensitivity that is difficult to endure. This process must be addressed by nurses on a continuous basis in order to ensure that patients will receive the proper attention and commitment on a regular basis. These factors require nurses to address the challenges of each individual patient’s struggles with chronic diseases in order to be effective in meeting these needs on a routine basis. Patients who struggle with chronic illness in different forms often face difficult circumstances under which their symptoms are poorly controlled and they experience serious health concerns; therefore, this requires nurses to be involved in treating these patients and in advancing the objectives of this process in order to ensure that they are receiving optimal treatment at all times.

References

Cohen, R.M. (2008). Strong at the Broken Places LP: Voices of Illness, a Chorus of Hope.  HarperLuxe.

Lubkin, I.M., & Larsen, P.D. (2010). Chronic Illness: Impact and Intervention, 7^th Edition.  Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Moore, J., & McQuestion, M. (2012). The clinical nurse specialist in chronic diseases. Clinical nurse specialist, 26(3), 149-163.

Schulman?Green, D., Jaser, S., Martin, F., Alonzo, A., Grey, M., McCorkle, R., … & Whittemore, R. (2012). Processes of Self?Management in Chronic Illness. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 44(2), 136-144.

Taggart, J., Williams, A., Dennis, S., Newall, A., Shortus, T., Zwar, N., … & Harris, M. F. (2012). A systematic review of interventions in primary care to improve health literacy for chronic disease behavioral risk factors. BMC family practice, 13(1), 49.