Chronic Illness and Palliative Care. Master Nursing Essay

Chronic Illness and Palliative Care. Master Nursing - Essay Example The discussion in this paper will be based on the principles of care of a patient with a chronic illness which is asthma in attempts to explore three main concepts, living with asthma and patients quality of life; the client's empowerment through self-management care and the continuity of care in a multidisciplinary team approach with a palliative care setting. According to the definition provided by the World Health Organization (1990), "Palliative care is the active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment. Control of pain or other symptoms and psychological, social and spiritual problems in this context are of paramount importance" (pp. 804). Regarding shared values and ethics in palliative care, ethike is a Greek word from which the word ethics is derived. Ethos is a value which one has and consistently applies to one's life. Within the palliative care setting, there are three aspects of patient care that need special attention: the realms of t he palliative care patient; the realm of the palliative care nurse; and the realm of the palliative care team. ... Scott was diagnosed with asthma at age of six years. There are some factors such as dairy products; shellfish; electrical storms and dairy dust that trigger his asthma attacks. Scott is married, but his wife left him three months ago and his condition gets worse and the house does not have the same standard as before. In his effort to find alleviation of the symptoms of asthma, Scott attends his 45 to 49 year old health assessment for the first time. The Patient's Diagnosis Scott was diagnosed with asthma at age of six years. His asthma is a chronic condition. Recently, Scott is complaining of bad asthma attack which stopped him to attend his work as usual. Additionally, Scott has psoriasis and the history of having it is unknown. However, the nurse practitioner should conduct a thorough health assessment in order to gain furthers details about the diagnosis of both disease, treatment, and the way of self management that is followed by Scott in order to control over his condition. Me asuring the severity level of asthma is determined by the physician by asking the client to have a lung function test (LFT), which a breathing test that identify whether the person is having asthma and its severity. Another test that can be done easily by the patient is spirometry, which is an instrument that is considered to be the most accurate test to determine asthma (Department of Health and Aging, 2010b). Living With Asthma Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways and lung. It is characterized by wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath. There are some of the risk factors that contribute to trigger asthma attack such as colds and flu, air