Acute Exacerbation of Asthma - Case Study Essay

History of Present Illness: Ms. Dahlberg is a very pleasant 69-year-old woman who suffers from poorly controlled asthma. She has a recent exacerbation requiring hospitalization at Anna Jaques Hospital in June. Since discharge, she states that she has done well. She has stable dyspnea on exertion. She does feel that perhaps it might be slightly worse given the heat and humidity. She is not complaining of any cough. She is compliant with her bronchodilator regimen.

Asthma is the leading cause of chronic illness in children and is responsible for nearly 10% of the Emergency Room visits for children <15 year of age. It occurs in as many as 10%-12% of children in the United States and is gradually growing. Asthma can begin at any age , but most children have their first symptoms by age five. Because Camp Wapiti is for children ages 8-13 exclusively, this report will focus primarily on childhood asthma.

Task analysis is the process of obtaining information about a job by determining the duties, tasks, and activities involved and the knowledge, skills, and abilities required in performing each task. There can be broken down into six

The Activities of Daily Living have been refined for over 30 by the authors and were first published as part of the publication “The Elements of Nursing” in 1980. Today the model is widely used by students and healthcare professionals from different backgrounds including Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Nurses and others. It is useful for health care professions and others when using parts of the model in direct relation to a person’s healthcare needs in an individual area such as breathlessness, and as mentioned previously allows for the start of an evidence based approach to the patients difficulty.

“Sarah is at Children's Hospital, in the ICU”. Those are the words that changed my life. Sarah is extremely sick and it's making me want to be smart, strong, and kind. My sister, Sarah had lung failure when she was in 7th grade, she was hospitalized and stayed at Children’s Hospital in the ICU for around a week. Nearly a year later they found out what was wrong with her, she has Chronic Eosinophilic Pneumonia and Severe Asthma. When I saw her get sick I saw her being strong, nice, and keeping up on school work she made me want to have these qualities as well.

1.2. During an asthma attack, the air passages become narrow, their surrounding muscles tighten, and stickier mucus is produced. Patients experience symptoms like coughing, wheezing, chest tightening and breathlessness. Severe asthma attack can cause restriction of oxygen into the lungs and bloodstream (British Lungs Foundation, 2014). This can be dangerous and life threatening if immediate medical treatment is not received. Asthma symptoms are usually severe at night (NHS Choice, 2014). This can disturb patient’s sleep and can affect their behaviour and concentration. Asthma can also affect the patient ability to do physical exercises as well as their daily routine.

People experiencing very severe and life-threatening asthma gasp for breath, become blue, cannot talk at all and sometimes collapse to the ground. An ambulance (000) should be called immediately and

During the clinical experience, I was able to care for a patient with the diagnosis of adult onset asthma. J. D. was a twenty-year-old with a one-year history of mild persistent asthma. His body mass index was 30, and he was a former 1/2 pack per day smoker for one year. Also, other lifestyle factors included social alcohol drinking (1-2 drinks per/day) over the last year since he moved out on his own. He did not regularly exercise, and he admitted to not using his daily Qvar. He lives with a roommate that does smoke in the apartment. His sister was the only family member with asthma and was diagnosed in childhood. He was being treated with a low dose inhaled daily corticosteroid (Qvar 80 mcg/daily) and a short-acting

Pamela was seen today following her trial of Alvesco and her stress myocardial perfusion scan. Reassuringly, the stress myocardial perfusion scan was normal showing godd ventricular function and no obvious evidence of ischemic heart disease.

Amy Parsons is a 16-year-old who states that she has periods when she experiences severe coughing described as dry, hacking, and non-productive. Amy reports shortness of breath and cough after swimming during summers and cough along with occasional wheezing during fall and winter months when she swims competitively. She has no known allergies, no history of surgeries or hospitalizations, and no chronic illnesses. Amy’s physical exam is unremarkable but she reports four to five colds per year. The test results for Amy’s the peak expiratory flow rates (PEF) are as follow: 290/310/320 with her predicted at 453. The following paragraphs will identify and explain the pathophysiology involved in Amy’s case.

This is 37 year old white male. Patient reports history of asthma, but unable to get his inhaler because of his current homeless situation. Patient reports his asthma is mild and well controlled at this time, he may use his inhaler 1 -2 time per month as needed. Patient has chronic bilateral knee joint pain, and lumbar neuopath. Patient is a non-tobacco user, denies use of alochol or illicit drug use. Patient denies chest pain, SOB N/V/ D, or fever.

This pharmacology assignment seeks to answer two question from a given scenario (appendix I), therefore, it would be divided into “Part A” and “Part B”. To achieve this, “Part A” will discuss the relevant patho-physiology of an acute asthma exacerbation and “Part B” will discuss the relevant pharmacology and management issues of 3 drugs that were used in the treatment of Cora (Psuedonym, NMC 2015), including their pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. The role of the nurse in care of the asthmatic patient and the impacts of the nursing care of acute asthma will be highlighted and a conclusion drawn.

Asthma is one of the most common health problems in the United States that can not only affect patients' lives, at school or work, but also creates a significant burden on society. Diagnosis and management of asthma has traditionally been accomplished by clinical, exam, pulmonary function testing and patients perceived level of symptoms. The key factor in asthma is airway inflammation. Until recently, airway inflammation was very difficult to evaluate. It usually required invasive procedures that in some instances would not give us a complete answer. Without a knowledge of airway inflammation, clinicians can over or underestimate the severity of asthma and in turn may not provide the most effective

A 7-month-old infant presents with a cough. The parent of the infant Mrs. Tomran is concerned about respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). A detailed history was conducted for the infant. It indicated the coughing mainly happens during the night and increases when crying occurs. The infant is noted to have a history of eczema with an extensive episode a few months ago. She is also noted to have an ear infection 3 months ago with an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin used for treatment. There are individuals that suffer and are being treated for a variety of different respiratory disorders. The type of cough that this 7 month old infant girl is experiencing a respiratory disorder, more specifically the underlying alteration that can be associated with it is asthma.

Therefore, assessing patients at risk for future asthma exacerbation is important. Since the long-term observational evidence in Asia regarding assessment of risk factors for fatal asthma is relatively limited, the aim of this study is to identify factors which are related to fatal asthma so that patients with high risks can be identified and be given appropriate intervention.Patients who had more than one asthma-associated hospitalization in the prior year, comorbidities such as septicemia, pneumonia, genitourinary disease, arrhythmia, diabetes mellitus and medical treatment with high dose of OCS increased the risk of fatal asthma