Asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airway that impacts a person’s and their family’s quality of life. In people with asthma, their airway becomes constricted with swelling and excessive mucous. This constriction or narrowing of the airway makes it difficult for the person with asthma to breath (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2009). If asthma is left uncontrolled, it leads to further wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, tiredness, and stress. (Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2009).

Asthma is a long-term lung disease. Those with asthma have sensitive airways in their lungs which triggers a flare up. When this flare up happens the muscle around the airways squeeze tight and the airways swell, become narrows and produce more mucus. (Anon., 2016) All these things make it harder for a person to breathe. Asthma effects the human body’s respiratory system. Asthma causes a spasm and constriction of the bronchial passages and the swelling and the inflammation of the mucous lining. The body responds by defence cells from the immune system, which causes the airways to swell and the muscles surrounding the airways to contract. Which is what cuts off the airflow. While a person is in asthma attack, the asthmatic cannot breathe which

One strategy that has shown to improve medication compliance and outcomes for patient with asthma is the provision of Asthma Action Plans (AAP). The Asthma Action Plan or AAP is widely recognized as the best tool for asthma self-management and has been demonstrated to improve outcomes for asthmatics. The AAP is a detailed plan that describes medications and treatments, how to control asthma, and how to address worsening asthma. The plan also describes when to call the doctor or go to the emergency room. The plan breaks down the severity of symptoms and treatment by color helping those with limited language skills and low health literacy the ability to understand the asthma treatment plan. (Nepaul et al.,

Asthma is a respiratory disease that many people deal with every single day. “According to World Health Organization, approximately 180,000 people die from asthma each year.” (Jardins and Burton 187) Most people never think of asthma as a life threatening disease, but it can be crucial. As the number of people with asthma increases, the more likely you are to come in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with this disease. Asthma is a severe breathing problem that has many complications that is dealt with daily like shortness of breath, chronic cough, tightness of the chest and shortness of breath, my main focus is childhood asthma, allergic asthma, and medication to treat asthma.

The goal of treatment is to reduce occurrence of symptoms, prevent exacerbations, maintain normal or near normal pulmonary function, and for the patients to live a normal life as much as possible. According to the NAEPP, asthma control is the degree to which the manifestations of asthma are minimized by therapeutic intervention and the goals of therapy ae met (Woo & Wynne, 2012, p. 996). The Expert Panel Report 3: guidelines recommend a step wise approach to pharmacological management of asthma. It can be a step down approach, where treatment can begin with a higher level of therapy or step up approach, where the initial treatment starts low, depending on the severity of the patient’s condition during the initial visit. The medications are divided into 2 categories: 1) quick-relief medications to

Putting on AIRS is a free program for residents of Connecticut who have a diagnosis of asthma, and who may benefit from a home visit by a Certified Asthma Educator and an Environmental Specialist. Darlene had a home visit on March 4th. Enclosed you’ll find the signed release of information which permits the program to make available the summary of the visit. In addition, find the Asthma Control Test (ACT), taken from the Measures of Asthma Assessment and monitoring document page 67; “Patient Self-Assessment” (EPR-2 1997) that her mom completed at the time of

Avoiding and controlling asthma triggers is important in every phase of the intervention process in order to manage the disease. However, many times because of lack of awareness and education, asthma

Asthma is a chronic condition affecting the respiratory system and has a considerable impact on both individuals and a population. Everybody is susceptible to asthma, some more than others, depending of a variety of factors including, age, sex, geographical location and income. Asthma is particularly prevalent in younger children and the elderly and while it can be fatal, most people have mild cases of asthma that are relatively easy to treat. The condition mainly impacts an individual’s physical ability to contribute to a community.

I. Introduction: Looking at Asthma and breaking it down to fully understand the chronic disease.

As the second intervention we are going to offer an educational program for the patients. The program will go on for four months with two meetings per month, a total of eight group meetings. It will also include four home visits by a community health worker. Following GINAs’ guidelines the class will include inhaler skill training, support regular consultations and creating a relationship to their health care provider and encourage adherence with controlled medication and training in asthma self-management. Self-management includes self-monitoring of symptoms and PEF, regular medical review and a written asthma action

A screening template can be developed that can assist the nurse in performing a thorough assessment of an asthmatic patient. This questionnaire should be at an appropriate education level and question should be simple and direct. The questions should focus on the presence or absence of symptoms, activity limitations, exacerbations, missed workdays, and frequency of use of prescribed medications.

According to the CDC (2011), approximately 60% of persons who had asthma were taught how to recognize symptoms and early signs of an asthma attack, and 68.1% were taught the correct response to it. Yet, 34.2% of persons with asthma stated having a written action plan, 12.2 % persons reported taking an education class to learn ways to manage their asthma, and 42.2% persons were actuality taught how to correctly use a peak flow meter (CDC, 2011). An estimated 49.3% of respondents with asthma were advised to modify their living conditions at home, work, or school environments to lower the exposure to specific asthma triggers (CDC, 2011).

This assignment will explore and discuss asthma through the insight of a ten year old asthma patient Miss B. Miss B’s description of asthma will be defined whilst aligning this to current literature. Patient care treatment plans will be discussed according to the New Zealand health system, this will be contrasted to what support Miss B receives in her local community. Current New Zealand best practice guidelines in the primary health care setting will be discussed, and its limitations explored. Pharmacological interventions in this setting will be analysed and discussed according to low acuity presentations. Miss B’s situation will be discussed as will shortcomings of the health care system in relation to asthma. Suggestions for improvement of Miss B’s quality of life will be explored. Current New Zealand health promotion strategies according to asthma will also be explored and discussed.

A child having asthma attacks is usually panicking due difficulty of breathing, which includes shortness of breath and use of accessory muscles. The child is grasping for air due to narrowing of the airway and inflammation of the respiratory tract. Teaching the child to relax and instruct the child to control his breathing by doing deep breathing exercise would help him to control his breathing and reducing hyperinflation.

To investigate the problem, a sample of nine studies was used, including a number of common characteristics. The purpose of all the studies was to provide education to children suffering from asthma in order to help them understand the condition and improve their ability to manage it by means of self-care. Of the studies, six took place within the past 5 years. In terms of focus groups, the studies were also heterogeneous in terms of the age