Chronic Illness In Health Care

As the population ages, an increasing number of patients and families are affected by chronic illness. In response, health care has increased disease prevention and health promotion efforts (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Nurses are well-positioned to help families lead healthier lives by offering ways that they can support their loved ones during illness. The family nurse considers the whole family during care planning because all members are affected when a member is ill. In this paper, I will choose a chronic illness that could affect a patient in my practice and discuss three ways to improve their health and the family dealing with the illness.
Description of a Chronic Illness that Affects a Family at the Spine Center …show more content…
While we treat many acute illnesses, the most common chronic diseases that we treat are pain from arthritis and cancer. We have been treating Lucia, the grandmother of a Hispanic family for a while now. She has low back pain and is scheduled to have a series of nerve blocks to see if ablating those nerves will decrease her pain. The family consists of the son Carlos, daughter-in-law Sofia, and three children. They are a very close family and Lucia lives with them. Due to her pain and limited mobility, Lucia and her family are emotionally impacted, because she is the matriarch of the family and loves cooking and caring for her family. Since her arthritis has worsened, she hasn’t been able to cook or clean and is having difficulty performing activities of daily living. For this family, I would intervene to improve their health by supporting self –management of disease symptoms, helping them functionally adapt to changes in the family due to Lucia’s symptoms, and provide emotional