Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): A Detailed Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a chronic inflammatory lung disease causing airflow disruption. It begins by defining COPD, highlighting its global prevalence and impact, and then delves into its primary causes, including smoking, pollution, and genetics. The essay explains the pathophysiology of COPD, detailing how emphysema and bronchitis damage the lungs. It then explores the physical and mental impacts of the disease on individuals, as well as the emotional, physical, and financial burdens on families and carers. The role of community nurses and other healthcare professionals, such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, dieticians, social workers, and psychologists, in managing COPD is discussed, along with health promotion strategies to reduce COPD prevalence. The importance of health literacy, cultural safety, and cultural literacy in providing effective care are also addressed. The essay concludes by summarizing the key aspects of COPD, emphasizing the need for comprehensive management and prevention strategies.

Running Head: COPD
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Causes.....................................................................................................................................................3
Pathophysiology......................................................................................................................................3
Impacts of the disease on the individual and family/carer.......................................................................3
Heath promotions in COPD.....................................................................................................................7
Cultural safety and cultural literacy.........................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
Reference...................................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease also abbreviated as COPD is the chronic
inflammatory diseases of lungs that cause disruptive airflow form the patient's lungs. It is the
group of cumulative lung diseases such as emphysema and long-lasting bronchitis. Emphysema
slowly damages the air sacs in the lungs and bronchitis leads to inflammation and contraction of
the bronchial ducts (McCarthy et al., 2015). The global burden of this health issues study reports
the prevalence of nearly 251 million cases of COPD worldwide in 2016. It is estimated that
nearly 3.17 million people died due to this health issue in 2015. In the coming few years the
burden of this disease will be increased because of increased smoking prevalence and ageing
populace in different countries. Therefore management and avoidance of this disease is essential
and must get the attention of government officials from the entire world (Puhan et al., 2016). In
this particular essay the main causes, pathophysiology, and how to help the individuals with
these issues will be discussed in addition to the role of community nurses. The impacts of the
disease on the family, health promotion, cultural safety and empowerment will also be
mentioned in this essay.
Description
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a lung disorder that is described by a persistent
decrease of airflow. The symptoms of this health condition are increasingly worsening and
tenacious breathlessness on exertion ultimately results in breathing issues at rest. It tends to be
underdiagnosed and thus can be life threatening (Puhan et al., 2016).

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Causes
The main causes of COPD are cigarette smoking, second-hand smoke, pollution and
fumes, asthma and genes. Some of the risk factors associated with this health issue include age
(people older than 40 years are at high risk), respiratory infection, and certain jobs that put the
person around dust, and chemical fumes (Puhan et al., 2016).
Pathophysiology
To understand the pathophysiology of this disorder it is essential to know lung structure.
When people inhale the air moves to the trachea and later through bronchi out into the
individual's bronchioles. Tiny blood vessels called Alveoli are present on the end of the
bronchioles through which the oxygen moves from lungs to the bloodstream, In return, the CO2
moves from the blood into body's capillaries and later into both lungs before the exhalation.
Emphysema is the disorder of alveoli in which the fibres that form the alveoli wall become
impaired. The impairment or damage causes them less elastic and incapable to recoil when
people exhale, making it difficult to exhale the CO2 out of the patient's lungs. If inflammation
happens in the lungs, this leads to bronchitis with the consequent mucus formation. If this
bronchitis continues, the patient may develop chronic bronchitis. The patient can also develop
temporary bouts of acute bronchitis, however, these episodes are not recognised as the same as
COPD (Hogg, Paré & Hackett, 2017).
Impacts of the disease on the individual and family/carer
On individual
The individuals develop this health can experience both physical and mental symptoms.
Some of the physical symptoms of this health issue include shortness of breath, particularly

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during physical activities. It can also cause wheezing, and chest tightness, having to clear the
throat in the morning, because of the excess mucous in both the lungs, a chronic cough which
can generate more mucus that might be clear, white, yellow or greenish. Other physical
symptoms associated with COPD are blueness of patient's lips, or the fingernail beds, recurrent
respiratory infection, lack of energy, unintentional weight loss, and swelling in the ankles legs or
feet. The patient with this health issues often feels experience anxiety and depression
(Vanfleteren, et al., 2016).
Impacts on the family
Providing care to the patient can be more demanding and have significant impacts on
their bodily health results in fatigues, and physical exhaustion. This can happen due to the
constant need for care or visit the hospital frequently. Providing care to the patient with COPD
can also affect the carer or family members emotionally by causing stress due to the
unpredictability of the disease. This means that the carer in many occasions the may feel
anxious and feared to leave the patient at home as there is a threat of unexpected severe
breathlessness (Puhan et al., 2016). The different family carer may also experience lack of sleep
due to the constant needs of supervision for the patient. The attitude and behaviour of the patient
can be the source of emotional distress for the family members. Caring for the patient needs
long-lasting commitment, emotional support, and managing symptoms and medicines. Therefore
the carers must plan their routine activities according to the patients’ symptoms and medication
time, which can make it difficult for them to schedule daily activities outside the home. It can
also cause financial impacts on the family as well as the patient. For example, the long term
management of this health issue can leads to the financial strain specificity due to the need of
expensive medicines and loss of patient’s income (Cruz, Marques & Figueiredo, 2017).

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Role of community nurses
Community Nurses represent a suitable resource to provide care and upkeep to persons
with COPD during the whole course of the illness. The community Nurses require to reinforce
their role to the plan and provide more approaches to progress the COPD patient's quality of life
and decrease a load of this illness in the future. The community nurses are equipped with
essential skills to educate the patient and their care about the disease and help them the get the
best support is provided for the COPD patients and their carers by government and non-
government organisations. Community health care nurses are can refer the patient to the
physiotherapist in order to help the patient implementing some essential exercises as working out
can accelerate the rate to recovery.
Occupational Therapist
The occupational therapist can assist individuals with disease or disability to progress or
maintain everyday living and work abilities. The role of an occupational therapist in the program
of pulmonary rehabilitation is to evaluate and treat the activity restrictions associated with COPD
symptoms counting dyspnoea with the purpose of maximizing patients' capability to perform
activities of daily life.
Role of physiotherapist
A physiotherapist can assist the patient the implemented some essential exercises to
enhance the pulmonary rehabilitation. Physiotherapy can help the patient to enhance exercise
tolerance, improved mobility in routine exercise, decreased breathlessness, enhance the quality
of life by using therapeutic exercise and techniques of breathing (Summers, et al., 2017).

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Role of speech pathologists
The patient with COPD often experiences difficulty in swallowing. The speech
pathologists are involved in the dysphagia assessment and its management in the community as
well as in the hospital setting.
Dietician
Weight loss is the major issue in COPD which occurred due to increased requirements of
energy and unbalanced dietary consumption. This can be addressed by using nutritional
supplement therapy to improve strength and exercise tolerance. The dietician plans the daily
dietary intake for the patient and educates the carer about what should be provided to the patient
and what should be avoided (Summers et al., 2017).
Social worker
As the management process of these health issues is lengthy and it poses a financial
burden on the patient and their family member. The social worker can provide counselling to
access the services and support being provided by organisations to CPD patient and carer
(McCarthy et al., 2015).
Psychologists
It has been identified that the patient with COPD and their family members often
experiences stress, depression, and anxiety; therefore psychologists can play a key role in
provided psychological support and help them to deal with the psychological problems
effectively. They can use different types of therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy and
support the behavioural change inpatient (Blackstock et al., 2018).

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Carer
The carers are the one involved in patient care throughout the disease course they are the
family member, friends, and relatives. Carers can be the most effective person in addressing the
issues of COPD as the patient are more comfortable with the carer rather than a stranger. They
can support the patient by providing emotional support and care as they spend most of their time
with the patient compared to the other individuals (Blackstock et al., 2018).
Heath promotions in COPD
Health promotion is the most effective strategy to reduce the prevalence of this COPD in
the community. Health promotion needs the complete the support from the local health
providers, social workers, community or public health nurses, dietician, media person etc.
Nurses can lead the health promotion programs of COPD in the community. Raising awareness
about this health issue is essential to prevent its occurrence; nurses can make the community
members aware of the risk factor associated with COPD. This can be done implementing COPD
related mass media campaigns, public service announcements, disease-related fairs, and
newsletters. The nurses and another team member must use effective communication skills to
interact with the people so that the positive message can be spread. There is a different
organisation has been involved in health promotion programs such as lung foundation Australia,
department of health Australia, and healthy WA (Blackstock et al., 2018).
Education
Education is the main part of every health promotion programs that include educating the
people in the community about the disease, its impact, preventions strategies, risk factors, and
how to live with the disease, and where to receive the best support. The community members

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should be asked to gather to receive the information about the disease and they must be
encouraged to raise their queries. Smoking is the deteriorating factor in COPD; therefore the
patient should be educated about the benefits of quitting smoking and how to get help from
rehabilitation centres. The patient ad their family members must be educated about the drugs
prescribed by the physician and how they can manage the stress occurred due to the longs term
treatment procedure of COPD (Reddel, et al., 2017).
Health literacy
Health literacy is distinct as the capability to read, comprehend and perform on the health
care information. A diseased person with incomplete health literacy abilities have been exposed
to report inferior overall wellbeing and they are less probable to be screened for COPD and they
develop later stages of health issue. Healthy literacy about COPD can help the patient to
understand the importance of adherence to the disease management process, avoiding risk factors
and behavioural changes (Ansari, et al., 2017).
Cultural safety and cultural literacy
Cultural safety and cultural literacy are essential to delivering effective COPD care to the
people in the community and avoiding and ethical issues. There are different people live in
communities with different background and belied. For example in Australia, Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people belong to different background compare to the other non-
indigenous people (Ansari, et al., 2017). The community nurses and another team member must
have the knowledge and understanding of the different type of culture and must respect their
culture and background while providing their services in the community. Cultural safety means

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creating an environment which is spiritually, socially and emotionally safe for the people in the
community and not harming anyone's faith and beliefs. They must provide their services without
any discrimination based on colour, sexual orientation, religion, disabilities, gender, occupation
etc. the community members must be empowered by involving them in the decision making the
process about the program and health care interventions (Friedrich, 2015).
Conclusion
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a disease that impacts a patient's lungs
negatively. It is characterized by the persistent obstruction of airflow. It can be caused by
smoking, pollution, respiratory infection, asthma etc. COPD has occurred as the result of damage
to alveoli, which further affect the elasticity and makes it difficult to exhale. It can affect the
individual and the family physically, financially, emotionally (stress, depression and anxiety),
and socially. The community nurses can help the patient and carer to manage the symptoms,
getting support, and helping the patient and their family member to manage the stress associated
with COPD. A physiotherapist can educate the painter about the essential exercises, speech
therapist address the swallowing difficulty issues, the dietician can plan daily dietary intake, the
social worker can help them to access health services, psychologists assist them in dealing with
depression and stress. Health promotions are essential to spread the information and knowledge
about the disease and educate the patient and their family about risk factors, preventions
strategies, and medicine. Both Cultural safety and health literacy are important to provide
culturally, emotionally, spiritually safe care to the people in the community.

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Reference
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