University Report: Chronic Illness Management and Patient Care

This report delves into the complexities of chronic illness management, focusing on a case study of a 62-year-old man, Mr. George Polaris, suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disorder (GERD). The report emphasizes the importance of health education and self-management strategies to improve patient outcomes. It explores the impact of smoking and exposure to workplace hazards on the patient's conditions, highlighting the need for lifestyle modifications and preventative measures. Various client education strategies are discussed, including evidence-based practices, group sessions, and community campaigns. The report justifies these strategies by explaining how they can empower patients to make informed choices, manage symptoms, and improve their overall quality of life. The report underscores the significance of a person-centered approach and family involvement in chronic disease management, offering a comprehensive overview of effective healthcare practices and the importance of patient education in managing chronic illnesses like COPD and GERD.

Running head: CHRONIC ILLNESS MANAGEMENT
Chronic illness management
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Overview of chosen client’s health condition.................................................................................2
Self-management of chronic condition through health education...................................................3
Client education strategies...............................................................................................................5
Justification of the education strategies...........................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The current topic focuses on the aspect of chronic condition and disease management in
the ones suffering from acute stages of illness. In this respect, health promotion strategies could
be implemented in order to provide the support user with better self-managerial skills. The
chronic condition management requires that sufficient amount of education be provided to the
patients regarding management of lifestyles and habits. The pattern of lifestyle adopted by an
individual has sufficient impact upon the present health conditions of an individual. The
assignment further focuses upon the importance of implementing of a person centred approach
along with the policy of making informed choices. The person centred approach provides
sufficient autonomy to the health care and support service users. Additionally, involvement of
the family members of the patient helps in the addressing the policy of informed decision
making. The assignment also focuses upon the impact of management of symptoms of the
chronic disease by providing the patient with sufficient health education.
Overview of chosen client’s health condition
The current study focuses on the chronic illness suffered by a 62-year-old man Mr
George Polaris. He was admitted to the hospital with breath shortness, fever, and cough.
Originally, he was treated and given medication for chronic chest infection. However,
conducting a series of test and exams confirmed that George was a patient of Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and had a long history of Gastroesophageal reflux
disorder (GERD). Though, stable enough George had been long complaining of shortness of a
breath and persistent cough to his registered nurse and GP.

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On further inquiry, George reported that he had been a chain smoker ever since 14 years
of age. Reportedly, George had no allergies or disposition to any drinking problems. George had
been suffering from COPD and GERD both of which are long term and chronic sickness.
Therefore, the patient here needs to be put under a comprehensive care plan addressing the long
terms health needs of the patient. Both GERD and COPD are overlapping diseases and could be
related to the smoking addiction possessed by George. The present health condition of George
could be related to the presence of relapse of the symptoms of GERD which might further trigger
the condition of COPD in him.
Self-management of chronic condition through health education
In the present context, George Polaris is a 62-year-old man suffering from comorbid
conditions of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Gastric Oesophageal Reflux
Disorder (GORD). An assessment of the health habits of George the GP attending George found
out that George has been a compulsive smoker. He has a habit of smoking at least 20 cigarettes a
day, which can have profound effects on his present condition of health. Smoking damages the
air sacs, airways and the lining of the lungs. Injured lungs often affect the breathing or
respiration rate of the patient, thus severely disrupting the inhalation and the exhalation rate
(Monteiro, 2015). On testing and analysis, the respiration rate of George has been found to be at
22 breaths per minute. However, the normal rates of respiration have been recorded at 22 breaths
per minute for Mr George Polaris. This could be attributed to the presence of lung functioning
disorder in the patient. Additionally, smoking can also have severe impacts on the functioning of
the stomach sphincter muscles which aids in digestion (Schwarzer, 2014).

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The nicotine contained in cigarettes has been found to have a profound effect on the
process of digestion. The nicotine has been found to relax the sphincter muscles of the stomach
which prevent reflux of the stomach acid and undigested food products back into the
oesophagus. Additionally, eating spicy and sugar rich food has been found to aggravate the
problem of indigestion and backflow of stomach acid into the oesophagus (Flodgren, 2015).
Therefore, the patient needs to be provided with sufficient education about the health care
practices and lifestyle changes which could bring about positive changes in the health of the
patient.
The patient should be provided with healthy alternatives by educating them about the
health benefits of exercises. The addictive levels of smoking can culminate into more serious
and lethal concerns such as lung cancer (Bauer, 2014). Reports and evidence have shown that of
the 7000 chemicals found in smoking, 250 have been found to be harmful and 69 out of them can
have more serious outcomes (Kennedy, 2013). However, as reported by sufficient research and
findings smoking can trigger COPD or make situations of COPD even worse. Smoking could
also be related to lowering the pressure on the sphincter muscle of the stomach. This aggravates
the condition of acid reflux in people and the inhaled smoke had often been seen to produce
severe consequences like stomach cancer. Therefore, the facts and the outcomes need to be
presented to the patients in order to educate them sufficiently regarding the alternative and
holistic life approaches which could be utilised for optimum health promotion (Kruse, 2015).
Thus, the local hospitals could organise health care campaigns along with video presentation to
educate the patients of the severe health implication of smoking. The support from a wide
number of health care channels along with state and federal level government can help in

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meeting the health challenges faced in providing effective care and treatment services to care
service users like George.
Moreover, George had reportedly worked in a construction factory which means that he
has repeated exposure to some of the heavy metals such as silica, asbestos, etc. These metals
have been found to get deposited within the lungs on exposure above the threshold level. Thus,
in a concentration higher than the threshold levels the chemicals have been found to cause severe
respiratory disorders such as cirrhosis of the lungs (Dantic, 2014). Therefore, George needs to be
educated about the precautionary measures which he could implement within his own
workplace to prevent severe lung infection or aggravating conditions of the COPD. In this
context, George could use an air pollution control mask in order to prevent the inhalation of the
harmful chemicals. Moreover, he should be explained about the health benefits of sanitation
and hygiene measures which could control the harm caused by such chemicals.
Client education strategies
A number of evidence based practices could be implemented in order to provide effective
care and treatment plan to the ones receiving care for chronic and long term conditions. In this
respect, the patient had been suffering from a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Therefore, the registered nurse needs to implement a number of evidence based teaching
methods in order to enlighten the care and support service users regarding the prevention and
control method of chronic diseases. In this context, a participant group could be developed
consisting of the patient receiving care services for COPD along with the doctors and other
health care professionals (Ni, 2014). The setting of the promotional strategies could be on the
local streets or markets, which are maximum crowd pullers. Thus, mass media campaign could

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be organised where effective pamphlets and posters could be designed educating the masses
about the consequences of being addicted to tobacco. The campaigns should be designed with an
aim of providing additional knowledge and education to the community regarding the potential
uses of tobacco (Stellefson, 2014). The intervention in this regard could be followed by quitline
interventions where the patient suffering from tobacco addictions could be provided with
evidence based behavioural and counselling support. The counselling sessions could be
continued for a period of one or more months. Additionally, the involvement of the expert health
professionals helps in providing additional levels of support.
The management of the symptoms of GERD through sufficient health education is
dependent upon the severity of the condition in the patient. The management of the GERD
symptoms could be controlled by adopting two of the approaches such as the ‘Step –up
approaches’ and ‘Step-down approaches’. The Step-up approaches basically begin with
lifestyle changes where dietary measures could be taken in order to prevent the excessive
formation of acid in the stomach. This may further prevent the reflux of the corrosive into the
oesophagus. Therefore, the patient should be provided with sufficient information regarding
various aspects of lifestyle management. The nurses, as well as the GP looking after the care
concern of patients like George, need to provide the patient with proper guidelines regarding
diet types, which need to be avoided for the management and control of GERD related
symptoms. Report and evidence have suggested that lowering the amount segregated drinks and
beverages along with cutting down on smoking can bring upon positive improvement in the
conditions management of GERD (Pulvirenti, 2014). Evidence based practice focuses upon
breaking down the meals into small amounts to be taken at regular intervals (Lou, 2015).
Additionally, the patients should be provided with sufficient knowledge about Stepping down

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mechanism. The method mainly employs the pharmacological intervention for controlling the
excess formation of acid in the stomach of the patient. The patient could be presented through
sufficient knowledge by organising educational seminars regarding the use of acid blockers,
which are over the counter available medications such as antacids – ranitidine cimetidine, etc.
These work by blocking the action of histamine which is responsible for pepsin and gastric juice
secretion.
Justification of the education strategies
The health education strategies need to be designed as per the requirements of the patient.
In this respect the patient, i.e. Goerge Polaris had been suffering from comorbid conditions of
COPD as well as GERD. Further analysis of the condition of the patient had suggested that he
had exposure to certain harmful metals in his construction factory. The patient had been a chain
smoker and also possesses gastric reflux disorder. Therefore, educating the patient about the
effects of the practices upon the health along with emphasising upon the implementation of light
exercises in the daily schedule of the patient could help in reducing the dependency on nicotine
and can serve as a healthy alternative.
Additionally, the patient had a long history of GERD which further made his COPD worse.
Therefore, the patient should be provided with immediate measures to help him stop smoking.
Therefore, organising educational seminars and campaigns along with effective counselling and
support could help in the management of the long term condition of the patient (Welsh, 2015).

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Conclusion
The current assignment focuses on addressing the health challenges associated with long
term care and management of illness which is chronic in nature. In the present context, the
patient had been suffering from COPD and GERD. Thus, both the conditions require long term
care management plans. However, on analysing the current health status of the patient one could
evaluate that the patient lacked much information and sufficient knowledge about the
management of his present health condition. Therefore, there is a need to educate the patients
regarding self-managerial skills. Thus, educating the client in aspect of self-management often
plays a pivotal role in the provision of sufficient autonomy to the support users. Additionally, the
involvement of the family members of the support service users can help in the management of
such chronic conditions. Therefore, educating the patients experiencing chronic illness patterns
could be done with the help of the implementation of community development programs along
with generation of more awareness in the patients regarding the complexity of a particular
disease. Thus, presenting the patients with a surplus amount of information could help in
providing with ample alternative options which could be used by them for better management of
their health issues. In this respect, a number of strategies and options could be exercised in order
to provide the required amount of information to the patient and his family. The information
could be provided with the help of organising campaigns educating the masses regarding the
benefits offered by healthy lifestyle options. Additionally, organising community development
programs could help in generating positive and holistic lifestyle management initiatives.

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Bibliography
Bauer, U. E. (2014). Prevention of chronic disease in the 21st century: elimination of the leading
preventable causes of premature death and disability in the USA. The Lancet, 384(9937),
, 45-52.
Dantic, D. E. (2014). A critical review of the effectiveness of ‘teach-back’technique in teaching
COPD patients self-management using respiratory inhalers. Health Education Journal,
73(1), , 41-50.
Flodgren, G. R. (2015). Interactive telemedicine: effects on professional practice and health care
outcomes. US: The Cochrane Library.
Kennedy, A. B.-G. (2013). Implementation of self management support for long term conditions
in routine primary care settings: cluster randomised controlled trial. Bmj, 346 , f2882.
Kruse, C. S. (2015). Patient and provider attitudes toward the use of patient portals for the
management of chronic disease: a systematic review. Journal of medical Internet
research, 17(2) , 15-25.
Lou, P. C. (2015). A COPD health management program in a community-based primary care
setting: a randomized controlled tria. Respiratory care, 60(1), , 102-112.
Monteiro, M. C. (2015). Knowledge about COPD among users of primary health care service.
International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , 15-25.
Ni, Z. &. (2014). Effect of WeChat on compliance of COPD patients after discharge. Modern
Clinical Nursing, 5, , 19.

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Pulvirenti, M. M. (2014). Empowerment, patient centred care and self‐managemen. Health
Expectations, 17(3), , 303-310.
Schwarzer, R. (2014). Self-efficacy: Thought control of action. . New Jersey: Taylor & Francis.
Stellefson, M. C. (2014). Heuristic evaluation of online COPD respiratory therapy and education
video resource cente. TELEMEDICINE and e-HEALTH, 20(10), , 972-976.
Welsh, S. M. (2015). The champion for improved delivery of care to older people in long‐term
care settings: effects on professional practicequality of care and resident outcomes. . US:
The Cochrane Library.

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