Management of Chronic Diseases

Running head: Chronic Disease Management
Chronic Disease Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Chronic Disease Management
Part 1
Introduction
Nursing care is an aspect of health care that includes many different factors and one
of those factors are the health education providence to the patients in order to provide the
improvement in the post care set up as well. The nursing care is the factor of the physical and
mental support providence to the patient as well and the nurse should be able to provide the
support to the patient by proper nursing diagnosis implementation. In the following section
the patient condition and the nursing care along with the health education and discharge
planning would be discussed based on Mrs Betty White’s case.
Aetiology
Mrs Betty White is a 76 year old Italian lady and admitted directly to the medical
ward from her general practitioner with the exacerbation of her COPD and pneumonia. Her
present condition highlights that she has 122/72 blood pressure which is low, respiratory rate
of 26 which is high, heart rate 99 which also is high, oxygen saturation rate 87 percent with
6L O2 supplementation by Hudson mask. Her condition also highlighted that she has shortage
of breath, peripheral oedema and productive cough. All these symptoms relates to the
severity of her COPD and also the pneumonia (Caramori et al., 2016). On the other hand her
medical history highlighted that she had experienced total replacement of left hip as well as a
severe and persistent ulcer on the right lower leg. She lives alone as her son lives in
Melbourne and meets with her 3 times a year thus she utilises community nursing facility for
her ulcer. On the other hand her pneumonia and the COPD condition is related to her past bad
habit of smoking 3 packs of cigarette every day (Wilkinson et al., 2017). She reported that
she has no appetite for food and do some exercises for her shortness of breath. Coversyl
2.5mg Daily, Spiriva x 1 daily, Combivent x 1 daily, Colecalciferol 800IU daily, Fosamax
70mg weekly, Panadol Osteo 1330mg TDS are the medication she takes on the basis of the

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Chronic Disease Management
general physician prescription as the admission process of the patient did not supervised by
the admitting physician. Other than all these the patient found to be attached to the Italian
community of her locality and they also check on her every now. Hence, it can be seen that
the bad habits of the patient and also the cultural beliefs affected her health condition. On the
other hand the prior to the admission the patient has not been assessed by the pathological
tests such as Spirometry, CXR, blood test and ECG. Thus the clear outline of the cause of the
patient’s condition could not be assessed properly. However, on the context of her vital signs
and the physical condition it can be seen that she has an issue of low blood pressure and also
the shortage of breath as a result of the fluid retention that is the peripheral oedema found in
Mrs White’s body (Sohal & Walters, 2017). On this context it can be stated that the
respiratory rate and the low blood pressure of the patient would be marked as the red flag
symptom as these are in severe condition. However, the lack of proper pathological
assessment of the patient would not let the GP and also the RN to conclude on the
pathophysiology of Mrs White’s condition and thus further assessment would be required in
order to provide proper care to the patient.
Part 2
Nursing Care
On the basis of the patient’s social history, medical history and the present vital signs
the RN should focus on the process of the care providence. The nursing care process should
assess the physical condition of the patient by utilising proper diagnosis process. The
diagnosis process would be dependent on inter professional communication with the patient
and on the basis of the communication the condition of the patient can be assessed that
includes the feelings of the patient, pain and others as well. On the basis of the assessment the
nurse should consult with the supervising doctor or the physician responsible for the patient
and also provide the support to the patient (Tobiano et al., 2015). The nursing care would be