Self-Management for Chronic Disease Patients, Essay Example

Many of the most common conditions which clinicians deal with in patients today are chronic, long-term diseases like diabetes, congestive heart failure, and asthma which can require a different approach to patient education than would be true of acute or short-lived conditions.  This paper seeks to explore the importance of self-management and self-efficacy for patients with chronic diseases, and then explores the strategies that one particular patient education institution – the Stanford University School of Medicine – is utilizing to promote self-management and self-efficacy in the chronic disease population.

Self-Management and Self-Efficacy for Chronic Disease Management

Patients dealing with a chronic condition much generally deal with many different aspects of that condition on a daily basis.  With the process of diabetes for instance, patients must constantly be aware of their blood sugar range, their dietary choices, their activity levels, their insulin dosages, and a whole range of other factors that require more than just a theoretical knowledge of their disease. Dr. Bodenheim, in his article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, notes that for chronic disease processes, self-management (having the knowledge of what actions are necessary to achieve one’s optimum from day to day) and self-efficacy (have the confidence to carry these actions out) is the key to successful control of many conditions (Bodenheim, 2002, p 469).  However, he points out that in the clinical setting this can impact the way clinicians teach their patients.  Dr. Bodenheim is an advocate of both traditional patient education, which places importance on factual and practical knowledge (for example, a patient knowing about insulin and also how to administer it), in combination with self-management education, which largely emphasizes problem-solving skills (Bodenheim, 2002, p. 471).

Strategies for Teaching Self-Management

There are theoretically many different strategies for promoting self-management and self-efficacy in the chronic disease population. One innovative approach is being taken by the Stanford School of Medicine as part of their patient education program.  They have established a multi-week course of highly participative classes for patients with chronic diseases and the course is led by teachers who themselves have chronic conditions.   Many aspects of day-to-day management of long-term conditions is featured, including techniques to cope with the emotional issues of having a chronic disease, exercise, medications, communication techniques to be able to express feelings to one’s family, friends, or care team members, nutrition, decision making skills, and ways to deal with new or evolving treatments (Stanford School of Medicine, 2012, p. 1).   This holistic and thorough approach seems to me to be an excellent way for teaching patients to manage long-term and often complex conditions.

Conclusion

There are an array of special considerations for patient education when it comes to teaching patients about chronic or long-term disease processes; promoting both self-management and self-efficacy in this patient population can have a positive impact on patient outcomes, but it can require different strategies than might be used in traditional patient education.  However it is achieved, though, self-management should be the goal for both the patient and clinician when dealing with chronic diseases.

References

Bodenheim, T. (2002). Self-Management for Chronic Disease.  Journal of the American Medical Association. 288(19) 469-75.

Stanford School of Medicine. Chronic Disease Self-Efficacy Program. Stanford School of Medicine Health Education Department.  Retrieved from http://patienteducation. Standford.edu/programs/cdsm