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Nt1330 Week 1 Journal

Decent Essays

Journal Entry 5:
What chronic diseases do you see most often in your patients? What is the prevalence rate for the chronic disease you have identified in your practice? What illness behaviors do you see in your patients? Is this typical behavior according to your text? How do their family members react?
I work in the coronary care unit. Coronary artery disease is the most common chronic disease I see in my patients. According to American Heart Association, heart disease is the no. 1 cause of death in the United States, killing over 370,000 people a year (Heart and Stroke Statistics, 2015). It also states that about 750,000 people in the U.S. have heart attacks each year among them, about 116,000 die. It is scary to know that cardiovascular disease claims more lives each …show more content…

Some patients were shocked as they had never been hospitalized because they never had any other medical problems. Some patients knew that they have a chance of heart disease as they have seen in other family members. There were some patients who were angry about the fact that they couldn’t afford health insurance and they didn’t go to the doctor regularly. While others knew what they might get heart attacks again in the future as they had heart attacks in the past. These people knew what was coming, but they didn’t not adhere with the therapeutic regimen their providers talked about. Different patients had different perception of the disease process. After hospitalization, a lot of patient will request information on smoking cessation. Patients tell you that they will follow low salt diet and show interest in dash diet. Patient states that they will follow medication regimen, follow up appointments, diets and exercise regularly. These illness behavior is the reason of shock from heart attack, frustration at themselves for not following healthy lifestyle, dismay at themselves or their financial situation and feeling powerless over their own

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