Common Asthma Symptoms and Signs Of Disease Process
This assessment is going to assess the understanding of different body systems and then link it to nursing care. It is going to identify different nursing considerations regarding care of different patients, who are suffering from any illness, injury and disease. In this case, the selected disease is Asthma, which is a lung disease. According to WHO, Asthma is a lung disease that is defined by recurrent attacks about wheezing and breathlessness and it can vary in frequency and severity from person to person (Who.int, 2021). This condition happens due to inflammation of air passages within lungs. Some common symptoms and signs of Asthma are shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, trouble sleeping that is caused by coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath. Another symptom is wheezing or coughing attacks, which are worsened by the respiratory virus and the common symptom of Asthma in children is wheezing during exhaling (Quirt et al. 2018).
Specific Nursing Assessment Tool For Asthma Diagnosis
Regarding diagnosing Asthma, some nursing assessment tools have been used; for example, nurses first check a patient's vital signs such as heart rate, respiratory rate, quality of breathing and oxygen saturation. Additionally, nurses check Forced expiratory volume (FEV) with help of peak flow meter and they assess the medical history of patients. Regarding measuring the heart rate, nurses utilise holter monitor and for measuring the respiratory, pulse oximeter has been used. Quirt et al. (2018) illustrated that diagnosis of asthma includes thorough medical history as well as nurses use spirometry, which is the common type of breathing test and it measures how much air the patients can breathe in and breath out of their lungs. It also measures how fast and easily patients can blow air out of their lungs. Nurses may do spirometry if patients have shortness of breath, cough and wheezing (Hashmi et al. 2021).
Types Of Interventions For Asthma Disease Process
Medications
According to Australia's Health and Welfare, several medicines are available for treating asthma and different medicines have different goals such as relievers, and preventers. Relievers used for rapid relief of the symptoms when they happen. These can be utilised before exercise for preventing exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, for example, salbutamol/ventolin used for relaxing the smooth muscles within airways (Aihw.gov.au, 2020). Preventers are the long-term and regular medicines and these medicines can minimize the symptoms as well as reduce probability of flare-ups. Inhaled corticosteroids are the most common preventers and it prevents airway swelling and relieves sudden symptoms of wheezing, shortness of breath and coughing (Nationalasthma.org.au, 2019). Some other types of medicines are prednisolone tablets, which are utilised regarding acute asthma flare-ups. Chung et al. (2018) suggested that regarding managing patients with severe asthma, a multidisciplinary approach is best for managing the complex issues of patients as well as treating severe asthma.
Besides medications, some other interventions can be considered regarding treating asthma such as dietary interventions, exercise interventions, and some changes in lifestyle. According to the researcher dietary intake presents a crucial modifiable factor within development of chronic health conditions including asthma (Stoodley et al. 2019). Evidence has suggested that dietary patterns that include omega-6 fatty acids and high amounts of saturated fats can induce inflammatory mechanisms, whereas dietary patterns that involve vegetables, fruits and dietary fibres induce anti-inflammatory pathways. Hence, changes in dietary patterns and food habits can help to control asthma and they avoid high amounts of sodium intake and can incorporate vitamin C in their diet (Stoodley et al. 2019). Next, physical activities can be a great intervention to control asthma, hence, both adults and children can engage them with necessary regular physical activities. Lastly, meditation and breathing exercise can help to control asthma and breathing exercise can reduce hyperventilation. Hence, nurses can inform patients about the dietary pattern for asthma people and can recommend them to do regular exercise and meditation to control their asthma.
Discuss and Justify Likely Needed Nursing Care For Patients with Asthma
Nurses play a primary role in checking patients' physical condition as to how patients can effectively manage their condition. Regarding treating patients with asthma the likely needed nursing care includes maintaining the airway patency, which means maintaining the ability of patients to breath with airflow passing from and to the respiratory system via nasal and oral passages. Additionally, nursing care can include expectoration of secretions, where material that is produced by the respiratory tract can be spitted out and nurses can demonstrate the behaviour for improving and maintaining the clear airways (Holmes, 2017). In addition, nursing care identifies the potential complications of Asthma such as airway remodelling so that they can initiate proper corrective and preventive actions to control asthma. Besides these, nursing care can include oxygen therapy for patients with severe asthma; however, in case of children then cannot consider oxygen therapy as the primary care. According to evidence, oxygen theory can help to prevent patients from stroke while having severe asthma attacks (Oxygensolutions.com.au, 2020). According to Holmes (2017), in case of severe asthma Bronchial thermoplasty can be a good treatment option and it can be involved in nursing care.
Potential Complication of Asthma
In the majority of asthma patients medicines help to prevent and control serious issues. However, in case of severe, the cases are way more difficult and people with severe asthma inhale high-dose corticosteroid and potential complications are present related to asthma. The first potential complication of asthma is that it can disrupt the regular life because asthma limits their regular activities and many children miss their school days due to their disease (Healthdirect.gov.au, 2020). Information has suggested that, because of asthma people are less productive while studying and working. Additionally, asthma can lead to poor sleep, as people with asthma cannot have proper sleep and they awake more often and due to insufficient sleep they cannot concentrate on their work and feel drowsy. Due to asthma, lung function reduces and it can lead to respiratory failure. Additionally, asthma can lead to poor mental health as it can increase depression and anxiety and can trigger their panic attacks (Toolkit.severeasthma.org.au, 2019).