Question

In this initial entry into your Nurse E-Portfolio for this course, you will focus on your current level of nursing practice from your own perspective and what you will need to learn to care for clients who are chronically ill and/or require transitional care. Using the e-portfolio format, answer the following questions. Make sure you spend some time thinking about the answers to these questions before writing.

1. Describe how you feel about chronic illness and its impact on health and wellness.

2. Discuss experiences you have had with chronic illness and what role you played.

3. What adjustments will you have to make in your practice when you care for chronically ill clients.

Answer 1

1.Long term health conditions definitely has an impact on our health and wellness.As the number of people inflicted with chronic diseases are on the surge ,so are the death rates and this shows the enormous and growing disability.But the current health care strategies have raised the life expectancy.This resulted in people living for more years bearing chronic illness along with them.Furthermore it definitely affects the economic security of a country.People with chronic illness are not only a burden for their immediate family members but also to the society as it affects the economic productivity,social structures and achievements.

2 The most important paradigm shift for health care providers is that care needs to be extended over a long period of time.In the past care was given in a episodic way ,that days have long gone .Some of the challenges the nurses face while caring for chronically ill patient is daunting.Dealing with increasing number of elderly people with chronic conditions make us reconsider how we view and manage chronic conditions.Communication is the key to effective patient care and in my experience while giving care to chronically ill patient it seems to work out.Moreover patients are more likely to take the lead in discussing behaviour changes with nurses than with doctors.

3 Nurses need to make a lot of adjustments while caring for chronically ill patients.It requires personalized systematic support and need to provide individualised careplans to support the involvement of individuals in their own care.Nurses also need to identify the current social ,health and education needs and make a decision as to how thesewill be met and who will be responsible for delivering each service.