Nursing Assessment and Management of Living with a Long Term Condition

This article discusses the nursing assessment, management, and evaluation of living with a long term condition, specifically focusing on a case study of a patient with bowel cancer. It explores the impact of the disease on the patient's health and quality of life, as well as the pathophysiology, incidence, and prevalence of bowel cancer. The article also provides information on pain management strategies for patients with bowel cancer.

Long Term Conditions-Analyse and
critically discuss the nursing
assessment management and
evaluation of the impact of living with
a long term condition

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
Prevention of Colon Cancer.........................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Long term condition can be defined as the illness that have no cure but is being usually
controlled and managed by various types of medications and treatment. It is a chronic condition
in which the disease has the long lasting effect on health outcome of an individual. It has been
analysed that there has been a significant increase in incidence of LTC in United Kingdom.
Nurse’s needs to be engaged in understanding the early signs and symptoms related to LTC. It
has also been analysed that LTC can reduce the quality of health of patients suffering from it.
This can lay negative impact on their health aspects. Present report will lay emphasis on case
study of patient suffering from Bowel cancer. It will lay focus on one aspect that is related to
pain management. Report will lay emphasis on the long term conditions and patho physiology
related to the disease. It will also provide the incidence and prevalence rate for Bowel cancer.
Assignment will also focus on the impact on such disease on patients.
Bowel cancer is a general term for cancer that begins in the large bowel. Depending on
where the cancer starts, bowel cancer is sometimes called colon or rectal cancer. It is one of the
most common cancers that have been diagnosed in United Kingdom. Most of the people who are
been suffering from this type of cancer is above the age of 60. The patho physiology and
aetiology related to the disease provides the detail about the symptoms that are been giving rise
to bowel cancer can include unusual changes in the bowel habit. Patient can face various
symptoms’ like constipation and diarrhoea.
It has been analysed that usually these symptoms’ can be considered as normal by the
health care professionals but if the patient is of old age than these signs and symptoms’ can also
be serious. Service user suffering from bowel cancer can also face other type of problem such as
fatigue, loss in weight and appetite, blood in the stool, unusual pain in the stomach or
unexplained anaemia. These are the long term conditions that can be faced by patients suffering
from the bowel cancer and have long lasting effect on their health outcome. There are also
various causes of the bowel cancer. One of the major cause is age, 9 out of 10 people suffer from
the Bowel cancer because of the old age. It has also been analysed that there are various other
reason such as smoking and consumption of alcohol can also lay impact or can increase the
chance of getting Bowel cancer. This type of cancer can also be caused because of the family
history or any close relative going through it. Some risk factors cannot be changes but there are
several ways through which long term condition can be reduced.
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It has been analysed that more than 42000 people are diagnosed with Bowel cancer in
United Kingdom every year.
MAIN BODY
This case study is about Jed who is a 64 year old Irish male who have started the having
frequent episodes of constipations. These symptoms prompted him to take primary medical care
from the doctor who was managing his Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia. There is some
medical history Jed have which is related to the Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia. He is
taking medication for these medical issues which are currently faced by him. he had some social
history is significant for smoking for one pack for 35 years and occasional intake of alcohol for
social occasions. Jed is a married man has four adult children. As per the medical background of
his family his sister was diagnosed with colon cancer at age of 50 who is alive with no evidence
of disease. Jed is the second person in the family who was diagnosed with. There is also huge
chances of his children to face same issues. It was important for him to provide more information
to the doctors to make him assured about his children are safe from the cancer (Venkateswaran
and Conacci-Sorrell, 2020). As there are multiple cases are found in in his family his family is at
higher risk. As Jed is suffering from stage 4 cancer it is not possible to cure the cancer at these
level. The main goal of the treatment is to manage the symptoms of the disease, prolonged
survival and improve the quality of life.
The Oncologist of Jed have suggested to Jed to take systematic Chemo therapy utilising
FOLFOX along with Bevacizumab. Jed was sent to intervention based radiology for
implantation of access port and visit Oncologist week later. There are various considerations
have been followed in the radiology.
Colon cancer is considered as type of cancer that start to develop in large intestine which is final
part of the digestive tract. Most of the tile alder people are diagnosed with colon cancer but it can
not be confirmed that the cases of colon cancer are frequent in adults. It can occur at any age.
Initially the cancer develops in intestine as small and non cancerous clumps of cells which are
commonly considered as polyps from the inside of the intestine (Garrett, 2019). There is high
tendency of these tumours to grow as colon cancer. For the diagnostic this is important to
perform frequent screening in order to considered it as case of colon cancer. There are different
treatments are possible if a person face colon cancer.
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There are some common symptoms of Colon Cancer that are mostly visible in people who are
suffering form Colon Cancer. Some of the most common symptoms of Colon cancer are- A
persistence change in Bowel habits can be considered as one of the major symptoms for colon
cancer. Along with change in Bowel habits person also can face issues like Diarrhea or
constipation. Patient also can face change in the consistency of the stool. This is also one of
major symptoms of colon cancer that patient also suffer from rectal bleeding and blood in stool.
Persistence abdominal discomfort like cramps, gas and pain is also considered as symptom of
colon cancer. Person also can feel that their bowels are not completely empty (O'keefe, 2016).
According to the other cases of cancer weaknesses is also common symptoms of colon cancer.
Unexplained weight loss is also considered as common symptoms of colon cancer.
There are different causes of colon cancer for people who are suffering from colon
cancer. Mainly the colon cancer develops with the mutation in the DNA of the patients. Due to
this mutation in the DNA of patient it results as uncontrolled division of cells which is known as
cancer. There are various risk factors are associated with colon cancer which are mainly
considered by health care professional are- Old age is major risk for issue like colon cancer. For
the people above 50 year old have more tendency of suffering from colon cancer. The risk of
death is also high with age factor. People with African American have more risk of colon cancer
other than race of other people. There are some inherited diseases in patient also can increase the
risk with these type if cancer. People who have family history related to the colon cancer can
increase the risk (Pham, Saelim and Tiyaboonchai, 2019). People who take low fibre food and
high fat diet also can increase the risk. This could have major risk of people of colon cancer.
Sedentary Lifestyle of people also can increase the risk of colon cancer. People who are suffering
from long term Diabetes also can lead the person with increased of colon cancer. With issue of
obesity there is high risk for people to might have colon cancer. As per the case of Jed, he is a
long term smoker and it can cause negative impact on his health. Other things like alcohol also
can increased the risk of colon cancer in people. Other issue are associated with radiation that are
used in the treatment of colon cancer also can affect the health of individual person.
Prevention of Colon Cancer
There are different processes can be used by the nursing staff to prevent cases of Colon
Cancer in people. the most common process that can be used by people also can be considered as
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the screening of patients. Regular evaluation and screening of people can help the individual
person to prevent the case of colon cancer.
There are some changes also can be made in the lifestyle of the individual person can
help to prevent the condition of colon cancer. For example variety of fruits and vegetables also
can be consumed by the person to prevent the condition of colon cancer (Burn and Sheth, 2018).
There are some considerations also need to be made by the person to avoid issues like cancer.
For example it is important to avoid smoking and drinking can help the individual person to
avoid issue of colon cancer. Proper health life balance can help the individual person to reduce
the chances to developing small tumours in Intestine of people. Proper healthy diet and proper
weight balance can improve the health of the person.
Nursing Assessment process for Colon Cancer
There are different processes can be used by the nursing team to assessment process to
perform diagnosis for a person. The most common process which is used by the nursing staff are
considered as regular evaluation process can be performed by the medical staff to screening of
the people who are suspected with colon cancer. The evaluation of the people should be based on
the family history of people. This frequent tests of the colon cancers should be started after the
age of 50 year to prevent the chances of colon cancer in initial stages. This is how by frequent
and periodic testing can allow the people to prevent the conditions like colon cancer. Some times
testing can be started before age of 45 to prevent all the possible cases of colon cancer in alder
people. proper directions also need to be provided to the people in order to avoid cases of
intestine cancer in people of all age (Qadir and Khan, 2018). There are some tests are also used
in the testing process f colon cancer which are known as- colonoscopy, computed tomography,
sigmoidoscopy, decal occult blood test, double contrast barium enema and stool DNA test. This
tests are most common in the testing of colon cancer.
The Colonoscopy allows the doctor to look inside the entire the colon of patient to
evaluate the internal condition of the intestine of patient. This is how actual condition of the
people can be analysed on the previous stages. Computed Tomography. This process is known as
virtual colonoscopy. This process required skilled radiologist is required to get better overview
of the patient’s colon. The Sigmoidoscopy is process where flexible lighted tube is inserted into
the rectum or colon to check the development and analyse the growth of polyps, cancers and
abnormal growth of the colon tissues. In the fecal blood test is process where test is performed to
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find blood in Fecal or stool that can be signed as polyps. The DNA tests also can be performed
from stool sample can be used to test for colon cancer. This is how all these processes can be
used by the nursing staff to perform tests in diagnosis of colon cancer.
Treatment of Colon Cancer
In most of the cases colon cancer can be cured by the specific treatment process. When
the disease is diagnosed in earlier stages then it can be cured easily. 50 % cases of the colon
cancer are curable. As per the case of the Jed this is not possible to cure their cancer because it is
of level 4 and age of patient is also too much to conduct proper treatment to development
improvement in the health condition of the patient.at fourth level this is highly difficult for the
individual person to get cure of disease in effective way. In major and critical condition people it
can be ultimate cause of death. There are different treatments can be used by the nursing staff to
provide proper cure to the people. The most common procedure that is used by the doctor is
removal of polyps at the time of colonoscopy. In the initial cases of colon cancer here cancer is
small, completely contained and localised with in the polyps then this is one of the most effective
ways to removing polyps from the colon. Other process which is used by the doctors is known as
Endoscopic Mucosal Resection. At the time of the colonoscopy larger polyps are removed by
using special tools and techniques. Minimally Invasive Surgery also can be used by the people as
the treatment of colon cancer (Vanamala, 2019). Polyps also can be removed at the time of
colonoscopy through the laparoscopy surgery. In this procedure surgeon uses various tools which
are inserted in the colon through incisions. These tools are equipped with camera which is used
by the surgeon to perform operation with effectiveness.
For the advance condition of the colon cancer partial colectomy, surgery to create a way
for waste to leave body and lymph Node Removal. These three processes are use at more
advance cases to provide better cure to the patient. Partial colectomy process the infected part of
the colon is removed through the operation to provide cure to the people. in the other process
waste of the digestive system leave the body with a new way that is provided through the
surgery. In the last process nearby lymph nodes are usually also removed during colon cancer
operation for the removal of cancer form intestine.
For more advance level of cancer some other processes can be used by the doctors to provide
cure to the patient or improve or prolonged their life with better life standards (Gerner,
Bruckheimer and Cohen, 2018). Some of the common procedures that are completed at advance
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level of cancer are- chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted drug therapy and immunotherapy
is provided to the patient. There are also some cases are there which can not be cured effectively.
In this case people are provided with palliative care in order to improve and prolonged the life of
the patient.
CONCLUSION
This report is about Jed who is 64 year ole person who have faced initial symptoms of colon
cancer and later diagnosed with colon cancer. Some personal information of patient also has
been provided in the report that can be considered by the people in order to provide better cure to
the patient as per their need and personal lifestyle. The case of the Jed is completely evaluated in
order to understand his situation to provide better solution to patient. Personal and professional
background of patient has been evaluated in the report to develop better process to reduce the
pain and suffering for people. Various process of prevention and assessment has been evaluated
and analyzed in the report. There are different treatment procedure are possible for patient has
been discussed in report on various perspectives. The particular solution for case of Jed has been
provided in report which is known as chemotherapy.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Burn, J. and Sheth, H., 2018. Colon cancer prevention. Cancer Prevention and Screening:
Concepts, Principles and Controversies, p.183.
Garrett, W.S., 2019. The gut microbiota and colon cancer. Science. 364(6446). pp.1133-1135.
Gerner, E.W., Bruckheimer, E. and Cohen, A., 2018. Cancer pharmacoprevention: Targeting
polyamine metabolism to manage risk factors for colon cancer. Journal of Biological
Chemistry. 293(48). pp.18770-18778.
O'keefe, S.J., 2016. Diet, microorganisms and their metabolites, and colon cancer. Nature
reviews Gastroenterology & hepatology. 13(12). p.691.
Pham, D.T., Saelim, N. and Tiyaboonchai, W., 2019. Paclitaxel loaded EDC-crosslinked fibroin
nanoparticles: a potential approach for colon cancer treatment. Drug delivery and
translational research, pp.1-12.
Qadir, M.I. and Khan, H.S., 2018. Awareness about colon cancer in University biology
student. Journal of Cancer Prevention & Current Research. 9(9).
Vanamala, J.K., 2019. Potatoes for targeting colon cancer stem cells. American Journal of
Potato Research. 96(2). pp.177-182.
Venkateswaran, N. and Conacci-Sorrell, M., 2020. Kynurenine: an oncometabolite in colon
cancer. Cell Stress. 4(1). p.24.
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