Nursing Care for Chronic Health: Client Education and Support

This article discusses nursing care for chronic health conditions, specifically diabetes, and the importance of client education and support. It covers the impact of chronic health conditions on social, emotional, physical, psychological, and financial aspects of life. The article also includes a care plan for managing chronic health conditions.

Running head: Nursing care for chronic health
Nursing care for chronic health
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Authors note:

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Q1- A statement on what the client, family and carer understand about the condition and its
impact on the client
On receiving the patient who was suffering from a chronic illness known as diabetes,
a statement was noted from the patients and his family. The family members of the patient
were also not much aware of the care that needs to be given to the patient. Diabetes is a
common disease and the name was heard by their members but had no knowledge on its
serious consequences (Butcher, Bulechek and Dochterman 2018). The treatment seemed to
be useless and this attitude impacted the already affected patient. From the statement it was
clear that the patient did not undergo any serious medication. The caregiver was not
experienced and had inadequate knowledge of handling such chronic illnesses. From the
statement collected from family members it was realised that the patient was suffering from
the illness from many days. The patient used to feel thirst, restless, vision changes and
restlessness and was not giving serious consideration.
Q2-Identify the current treatments the client is receiving and what multidisciplinary resources and
support services are being accessed
The patient had a normal check up when his physician told him to get blood sugar
tests done and he was finally then informed by his physician that he was suffering from high
blood sugar. He was prescribed to take metformin tablets to control his blood sugar. (Asmat,
Abad and Ismail 2016). He was told to make some changes in his lifestyle like brisk walking
and diets to control blood sugar but the results were not very improving. He did not receive
any such support service as he never paid much attention to his health and thought that
medication would help him cure the illness. The current treatments helped him control the
blood sugar to certain extent but was not under control.
Q3- Identify what community based care services they are accessing

2NURSING CARE FOR CHRONIC HEALTH
The patient and his family members were aware of the illness and were reluctant to
reach any community based service as they were not very sure of its benefits. The hospital
where he was treated introduced him to a clinical dietician who helped him with the diet and
introduce the necessary changes. Diabetes manager and coaches were supportive in making
the man understand the consequences of the illness to its health and how can it affect other
organs like eyes and kidney. Public health services for management of diabetes is ample as
many people suffer from diabetes and try to give useful information to every one affected or
not for awareness (Pickles and de Lacey 2017). The patient is in need of critical counselling
and support from family members and peers. As the patient was undergoing treatment in
hospital he sometimes used to get counselling from the psychologists of the hospital who
used to tell him about the ways to deal with the disease. The counselling had some positive
effect on the patient as he was willingly taking the drugs regularly administered to him. The
person must be aware of self care needs to take active part in monitoring its health. Nursing
care helps to establish a routine based care to the patient to bring in a positive change.
Q4- Identify what other agencies and professionals are supporting the person
There is ample amount of care provided by every health professionals in every health
care. In case of this patient there were immense support provided by the medical
professionals like pharmacists, nurses and physicians. In the hospital he was admitted the
doctor used to take care of his every day drug medication and followed the results every day
to analyse the significant changes. Psychologists played an important role in counselling of
the patient who was otherwise being socially out casted. Proper education by significant
groups who deals with such issues played a significant role in understanding the illness. The
hospital gave a suitable environment for the clients to interact with patient with similar illness

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(Miller 2016). Special government health organisations associated with diabetes care often
visited the patient to examine if other diseases were affecting him as in this condition the
immune system is affected. The health professionals and different health agencies supported
the patient to take care and understand the disease. This kind of collective initiations helped
the patient to evaluate his health and get a mental support, which improved the condition of
the patient. Health professionals are majorly involved with the basic health care of the
affected patients.
Q5- Discuss what level and type of care is being provided by the family and carer
The family of the patient followed the caring guidelines of the hospital as said by
physicians. (Coppell et al. 2017). The family members are actively taking part in the health
procedure of the patient both in existing and new medication. The care and support of family
members are essential for the ongoing treatment as this impacts the mental health of the
client. There was subsequent change in the diet followed by dieticians directive and tried hard
to make him follow the diet as he was very fond of food like cookies and pastries which
contributed to ill effects of his health. The patient was influenced to go for brisk walking
during morning and sometimes a family member also used to accompany him. Regular check
ups and blood tests were done to check for blood sugar level but low dip was found in the
data. There was no specific carer but the organizations regularly used to counsel the patient
regarding latest medication and how to take care of own health. With simple steps and care
the family took active part and ensured that the illness get controlled under permissible limits.
Q6- Discuss identified areas for education for the client in the management of their chronic
health condition and how you contributed to the clients understanding.
In diabetes there is ample amount of information present in the form of print media or
social media and many times patient take guidance from this but this may not give detailed

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information about the care plan that a nurse can give. It is the responsibility of a registered
nurse to counsel the patient about how diabetes can affect eyes or kidney. In case of diabetes
if the disease prevails for many years it can affect eyes in the form of glaucoma or feet in the
form of ulcer. Diabetes affects blood circulation and makes it difficult to heal the wound
(Anjie 2019). The patient is often not aware of the consequences so it is the responsibility of
a nurse to educate them. This form of education influences the patient to take care of their
health seriously. Therefore the patient must be educated about the illness and take adequate
measures. Drug administration is important part of the therapy so the client must take the
medication seriously and must not miss the said time of administration. Being a nurse my
session with the client helped him to understand more about the disease and management
issues (Foth and Holmes 2016) . My experience with such illness has let me help the patient
with understanding the details of drug administration. Different kinds of drug administration
is there having different pharmacological uses so it is advised to take the drugs as prescribed
by the patients. The clients understood the management more effectively after I had a
conversation with the patient regarding how to deal with the illness.
Q7- In a brief paragraph, discuss the following impacts due to their chronic health
condition
 Social
 Emotional
 Physical
 Psychological
 Financial
There is little impact on social life for people affected with diabetes. Proper
management of the disease would allow the person to lead a normal life. Little impact may

5NURSING CARE FOR CHRONIC HEALTH
prevail like eating out in restaurants or street food, which must be avoided. In diabetes work
productivity or the symptoms of illness like the laziness may have some impact in social life
of a diabetics.
In any chronic illness there are emotional factors that are attached. In diabetes too
stress occurs which affects the patients with diabetes (Katsarou et al. 2017). The medication
involved may hamper the patient and take a toll in the patients health resulting in depression.
a proper counselling can help the patient to understand and solve the issue.
Diabetes make the person weak and lazy due to insulin deficiency and hormonal
changes undergoing in the body. The person may not be willing to take up strenuous
activities and may hamper their work life.
Depression or psychological problem may prevail in patients facing diabetes. In this
situation feeling low is normal and there are withdrawal symptoms. There must be proper
care from family and nurses to give the patient psychological and emotional support.
Depression can delay the treatment of diabetes as it has relation with healing.
Financially there is a burden for people suffering from diabetes. The drug
administration and regular check-ups are not very financially effective. In case insulin is
administered, extra costs are to be met by patient and its family members. Diabetes once
diagnosed is not totally healable so there is a high chance that patient has to meet the costs for
lifetime.

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8. CARE PLAN
Actual/Potential
problems
Nursing
Interventions
Rationales Outcome/
Evaluation
The problem
associated with the
illness is less
awareness and
patients are unaware
of its health effects,
sometimes go
undiagnosed.
This problem can be
solved by proper
education and proper
implementation of
care plans related to
medication.
Nursing principles
help to identify the
disease and help in
treatment procedure
thus, there
knowledge is
effective in
counselling like
educating them
about weight
loose(McCumber et
al. 2018).
The patient
understood the
points and willingly
took part in
treatment
procedures.
The treatment
cannot be
discontinued and
people are unaware
that it can affect
other organs like
eyes or feet and
must be taken care
of.
Nursing
interventions checks
that the patient is
taking his dose
regularly. The
treatment cannot be
discontinued and
regular checks are
necessary
The basic principle
of nursing is to take
care, so it is their
duty to see after the
patient’s needs and
tell the patient of
self care and
mangement(Pickles
and de Lacey 2017).
There can be steady
outcome seen in the
patients history after
proper
implementation of
drug administration
and changes in
lifestyle.

7NURSING CARE FOR CHRONIC HEALTH
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