Question 1:
Chronic diseases such as “coronary heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and asthma are the nation’s leading cause of illness and death” (Jonas & Kovner, 2015, p. 120). These diseases pose serious burdens on the health systems and on society. Changing these figures will require that we engage patients, families, communities, and providers in order to impact behavior and health. According to Jonas & Kovner (2015) changing health-related behavior and provider-related behavior represents a prime target for improving national health goals and healthcare” (p. 142). Nursing needs to be engaged in helping to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases and illnesses.
If you were designing a mix of interventions to improve national health goals, what one behavior-related intervention and one provider-related intervention (described in the text-book) would you choose and explain your rationale(s) for choosing each. Describe what the impact or outcome of these interventions would be.
Answer
Treatment of patients with chronic diseases requires serious behavioral interventions for one to have effective and sustainable health status among the people. However, it remains one of the main challenges of in the field of medicine because treatment of chronic diseases goes beyond the normal prescription of drugs for one to be cured (Griffith, & White, 2011). One of the interventions which can be applied is the cognitive behavior therapy for patients who are suffering from the disease. Cognitive behavioral therapy seeks to make the patient responsible for the self-management of his or her health (Knickman, Kovner, & Jonas, 2015). This is because patients who care about themselves are more likely to have minimal health complications. The idea will not be informing the person why they should have a self-management of their lifestyle, but how to achieve it. This will be essential in the changing of people's mindset on the issues which they do day by day are detrimental to the well- being of their health. Ensuring there is social learning for individuals in the community will see people adopt a positive attitude in combating of chronic diseases.
Among the provider related interventions which seem necessary are the establishment of sound and effective communication for the patients who are suffering from chronic diseases and the health care facilities (Knickman et al., 2015). This will be by receiving a patient’s specific information for a given period (for example 12 months) and give the recommendations for treatment which can be done at the points of clinical care. The rationale of having efficient communications with the people suffering from chronic diseases is to minimize the time and congestion in health centers, keep updated information on the progress of the patients and create a way in which patients can access information easily whether for emergency purposes or posterity purposes. This will result in the adequate management of chronic diseases through micro-management from the top most level of health care.
Question 2
Each community bears the burden of disease on its fiscal resources.
Choose ONE of the behavioral risk factors (p. 120-126) and discuss the following:
• Describe the behavioral risk factor.
• Identify and discuss two determinants of health (social, economic, or physical).
• Explain how educational status, economic status (poverty or wealth), and health status are related.
ANSWER
One of the barriers which have has given serious challenges in the combating disease and ailments on the matter of never thinking about new models of handling the situations. One aspect which health practitioners should consider is the physical inactivity or the sedentary lifestyles of people. It is common knowledge that humans are a mobile creatures and therefore movements are essential for their well-being. Physical inactivity for this matter is when an individual adopts a lifestyle which is devoid of strenuous or vigorous mobile activities, actions and behaviors (Baybordi, Khamnian, Ziaei, & Dastgiri, 2015). Humans are created to have high levels of energy expenditure. Therefore adopting a sedentary lifestyle would mean the person will be using less energy, and it becomes hazardous over a period.
According to Alamian, and Paradis (2012), the determinants of health are the range of social, economic, environmental and personal factors which influence the status of health. On the part of the social factors, it includes the physical conditions of the place and the environment in which one was born, bred, work, lives, and age. The determinant of health can be the social attitudes and norms such as discrimination, exposure to violence, crimes, and social disorder, and the availability of resources that meet the daily wants of the person. The other social determinant is the personal behavior. For example, if a person quits binge drinking, then chances of suffering from liver or kidney diseases is significantly reduced. Personal or individual health determinants encompass the physical activity of the individual, diet, drug and substance abuse, and hygiene.
On a larger part, education is determinant to health because it is interlinked with the ability of the person to attain economic resources which determine how a person's determinants of health will be. Education and health are interlinked because it makes one informed about matters of health and will be likely to take measures to have healthy lifestyles. Nonetheless, it does not necessarily mean the economic might will result to good and healthy living (Alamian, & Paradis, 2012). Wealth can lead to people adopting lifestyles which are detrimental to their health such as eating junk food, drug and substance abuse and adoption of sedentary lifestyles.
References
Alamian, A., & Paradis, G. (2012). Individual and social determinants of multiple chronic disease behavioral risk factors among youth. BMC Public Health, 12(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-224
Baybordi, E., Khamnian, Z., Ziaei, R., & Dastgiri, S. (2015). Improving adolescents’ health by identifying behavioral risk factors and protective factors. Journal Of Analytical Research In Clinical Medicine, 3(2), 129-130. http://dx.doi.org/10.15171/jarcm.2015.020
Griffith, J., & White, K. (2011). Reaching excellence in healthcare management (1st ed.). Chicago, Ill.: Health Administration Press.
Knickman, J., Kovner, A., & Jonas, S. (2015). Jonas and Kovner's health care delivery in the United States (1st ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
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