Copd Longterm Conditions
Introduction:
Within the confines of this assignment, it is the hope of the author that the reader will obtain an understanding of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This will be achieved by bringing the reader through the patients’ illness journey. The assignment will begin by defining COPD and briefly going through the pathophysiology and incidents of the condition. From there the reader will embark on the journey, starting with diagnosis.
The author will attempt to give an in-depth exploration of the next stage, living for today while also discussing the Health Care Professionals’ role in providing a holistic approach to care. As COPD is a progressive lung disease (Kennedy, 2011) Symptom management is a major part of living with COPD, as such this assignment will look at Patients adherence and concordance to interventions. Symptoms such as breathlessness and fatigue will be discussed and the importance of smoking cessation addressed. Nutrition and healthy eating for patients with COPD will also be explored while also touching on the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation. The author will then go on to briefly explore the transition and progression of the illness by looking at the comorbidity associated with the disease. Finally the author will attempt to in essence look at the end of life stage of the Patients’ journey. In order to do this the Author has undergone a literature search using cinhal and pub-med. Key search terms such as “COPD” “Holistic approaches to COPD” “Living with COPD” among others were used.
Pathophysiology and Incidents:
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an umbrella term used to cover many well known smoking related lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Chronic bronchitis is a progressive inflammatory disease resulting from prolonged irritation of the bronchial epithelium with changes to the bronchi that include, increased size and number of mucus glands, oedema and other
Within the confines of this assignment, it is the hope of the author that the reader will obtain an understanding of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This will be achieved by bringing the reader through the patients’ illness journey. The assignment will begin by defining COPD and briefly going through the pathophysiology and incidents of the condition. From there the reader will embark on the journey, starting with diagnosis.
The author will attempt to give an in-depth exploration of the next stage, living for today while also discussing the Health Care Professionals’ role in providing a holistic approach to care. As COPD is a progressive lung disease (Kennedy, 2011) Symptom management is a major part of living with COPD, as such this assignment will look at Patients adherence and concordance to interventions. Symptoms such as breathlessness and fatigue will be discussed and the importance of smoking cessation addressed. Nutrition and healthy eating for patients with COPD will also be explored while also touching on the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation. The author will then go on to briefly explore the transition and progression of the illness by looking at the comorbidity associated with the disease. Finally the author will attempt to in essence look at the end of life stage of the Patients’ journey. In order to do this the Author has undergone a literature search using cinhal and pub-med. Key search terms such as “COPD” “Holistic approaches to COPD” “Living with COPD” among others were used.
Pathophysiology and Incidents:
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an umbrella term used to cover many well known smoking related lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Chronic bronchitis is a progressive inflammatory disease resulting from prolonged irritation of the bronchial epithelium with changes to the bronchi that include, increased size and number of mucus glands, oedema and other