INTRODUCTION
Asthma is a common chronic disease worldwide and affects approximately 24 million persons in the United States (Morris, 2015). It is the most common chronic disease in childhood, affecting an estimated 7 million children. It is one of the most common reasons for visits in ambulatory settings and accounts for 16.5 million office visits each year (Buttaro, Trybulski, Bailey, & Sandberg-Cook, 2013, p. 408). Improperly managed and poor asthma control can lead to frequent emergency visits, hospital admissions, missed school days, absenteeism from work, and in worst cases, even death. The mortality rate for asthma remains high, approximately 9 deaths per day in 2007. Furthermore, the impact of asthma flare-ups affects health care costs,
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Asthma is a common condition in children, and as a result it is easy to forget the serious consequences that can occur when it is uncontrolled. It is a condition that affects the airways which includes the classic symptoms of cough, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and wheezing. The diagnosis and management of asthma can raise many issues with both parents and children, therefore, it is vital that the health care provider be aware of these issues to better manage the condition. The author suggested that an open discussion with parents or caregivers about the condition can help alleviate concerns on the disease process itself, trigger factors, and possible side effects from the treatment. Furthermore, parents must also be empowered to discuss their child’s condition with the child’s school to ensure that the teachers and school staff are equipped to recognize any deterioration in the child’s condition and intervene appropriately. A proactive annual clinical review of children with asthma improves clinical outcomes, reduces school absences, reduces flare-ups, improves symptom control, and decreases visits to the emergency …show more content…
Factors like history of previous exacerbations, poor asthma control, improper inhaler technique, recurrent lower respiratory tract infections, poor adherence to medications, presence of allergic rhinitis, gastro-esophageal reflux, smoking, and obesity are implicated to play a significant role in the future risk of asthma exacerbation. An acute asthma exacerbation, which is defined as a worsening of asthma, often requires a short course of oral corticosteroids, visit to the emergency room or hospitalization. These flare-ups can be very costly to both the patient and the healthcare system. Improvements in the understanding of asthma therapies have been realized that long-acting bronchodilators improves asthma symptoms and inhaled corticosteroids reduces acute exacerbations. This indicates that a combination of bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids work better in reduction of asthma exacerbations. International guidelines recommend that patients should be stepped up or down on a treatment algorithm to gain control and afford minimal symptoms and reliever usage. Since several of the studies yielded inconclusive reports due to variable responses, it has been suggested that further improvements in the understanding of asthma control and the prediction of future risk will require the use of
Of all the things to be unacceptable at in life, breathing has to be one of them. 1 in 12 people in the U.S. have asthma, with the numbers increasing every year. Most may not believe asthma to be a killer disease, when in all actuality, approximately 10 Americans die of asthma each day, and about 4,000 each year. Over the last 16 years, asthma has played a huge impact in my life. Having to continuously make trips to the hospital every couple months due to asthma attacks triggered by unknown reasons. Getting medications upon medications and breathing treatment after breathing treatment, they were finally able to get my O2 levels back to stable conditions. A great amount of knowledge and experience goes into knowing how to live with asthma and what to do under certain circumstances in case of an asthma attack.
Today she educates parents about asthma to put them in control of their children’s respiratory health. “Asthma can present
Secondly, severe asthma can be life-threatening. Suffering from asthma can be frightening to experience and people often feel scared and anxious. The fear and scare can also lead to breathlessness and so mak...
Asthmatic burden can be defined in various ways. In this paper, prevalence of asthma, mortality due to asthma, and rates of health care use from asthma are used as primary dimensions of the asthmatic burden.
-Prevention management includes teaching the patient who has persistent airflow obstruction and frequent attacks of asthma to avoid triggers of acute attacks and to pre-medicate before exercising.
Goals of treatment include interventions to help maintain good lung function (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014). Asthma is treated with long-term control and quick relief medications (U. S. Department of Health and human Services, 2014). The severity of symptoms will dictate a medical treatment plan. As advanced practice nurses, we need to help asthma patients identify their triggers. This aspect is individualized based on the recognition of symptoms that lead to exacerbations. A few of common triggers include smoke, weather, pollen, and food. Additionally, we need to provide them with education related to their disease process.
Asthma is a chronic disease that makes it difficult to breathe. The airways to the lungs swell up and become inflamed, which narrows the air passageway to the lungs and the lungs cannot receive the amount of oxygen that it needs. “Mucus builds up inside the airways so you have trouble getting air in and out of your lungs.” (Pope, 2002, p.44). If the lungs do not receive the essential amount of air, it will cause a lot of distress and wheezing to the patient.
This paper throughly explores the care administered to the cases study Zachy a seven year old boy who has presented to the hospital following the an exacerbation of asthma. Discussed throughout is the pharmacological management of Zachy’s asthma including the pharmacodynamics of these prescribed medications and what affect these medications have on the pathophysiology within the respiratory tract.
Today the patient stated that she was diagnosed with asthma 5 years ago, and had been using inhalers since that time. Two months ago the patient moved to West Lafayette from Florida and began playing soccer. Her breathing difficulties became more apparent once she began the sport and inhibit her from fully participating, even with the use of her inhalers. The patient stated that her breathing difficulties are exacerbated by exercise and emotional stress and described breathing episodes as feeling as if she cannot get enough air, accompanied by wheezing and coughing. She stated that she frequently has to sit down and rest during practice and games when she experiences breathing difficulties. The patient stated that extreme temperatures and other environmental factors such as dust, fragrances, and chemicals do not
...pecific leukotriene receptors on bronchial tissues, therefore preventing bronchoconstriction, mucus secretion, and oedema. These treatments also reduce the influx of eosinophils, which results the ability to limit inflammatory damage being caused in the airway. These oral, non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs reduce the incidence of acute asthma attacks when taken on a regularly basis. Although in cases of acute asthmatic attacks medical intervention and treatment is required. The type of intervention depends on the severity of the attack itself.
Most of you may not think of asthma as a killer disease, yet more that 5,000 Americans die of asthma each year. According to the Mayo Clinic web page, asthma also accounts for more that 400,000 hospital discharges annually. As the number of people with asthma increases, the more likely you are to come in contact with a person who has the disease. As far as I can remember, I have had asthma my whole life. My mother and one of my sisters also have asthma, so I have a first hand experience with it. This morning, I will discuss some interesting facts about asthma, I will specifically focus on what it is, warning signs, symptoms, causes, and the treatments that are used.
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disorder which causes tightness of the chest, Wheezing and shortness of breath caused by narrowing of the airways. Asthma can be cause by many factors such as surrounding environment, diet/health, pets/animals and it could also be hortatory. Asthma can cause disability in some cases, death and continuous health problems. Asthma is a common chronic respiratory condition in some is more serve than others by having more frequent asthma attacks. Although there is no cure Asthmas is treatable with medications or using inhalers and nebulizers. There is no test to prove asthma or diagnose it however Doctors use symptoms to diagnose asthma. The airflow can vary when people are unwell with flu like symptoms. It is not fully understood why children develop asthma, although people with asthma often have a family history of asthma, eczema, allergies and allergic rhinitis (hay fever). It is estimated that approximately one in ten Australian children have asthma.
Asthma affects numerous areas of patient’s lives. Many patients will miss multiple days of work or school due to an episode of exacerbation. One study found that “asthma accounted for 10.5 million missed school days. Children with more severe asthma and/or nighttime symptoms are more likely to suffer academically than those with more mild symptoms.” (Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). Missing school can result in falling behind in classes and increase stress on the patient. For adults, many jobs have a maximum amount of days that can be missed before termination. If the patient has severe asthma, they could potentially miss one day a month for flare-ups or require hospitalizations that lasts 2-4 days. Majority of people are on a fixed budget and cannot afford to miss even one day a
A strong supporting family can help parents or single parents cope with this type of stressor. Talking among family members can help you solve the problem better. For instance, asking other family member how they deal with their child having asthma symptoms. Also teaching the child at a young age to manage their own asthma symptoms can be very helpful toward the parent. According to American Lung’s Association’s, Open Airways For Schools program is designed to teach children ages 8 to 11 years to manage their asthma and lead healthier, active lives (American Lung Association , 2016). This would be helpful to the parents who children dealing with asthma. The parents who have to watch their children all hours of the day can go back to their daily lives. I have a family member who child that has asthma and she taught her daughter how to use her inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines. Eating healthy food can help control the asthma symptoms. Talk to a pediatrics about the right diet for your child and what type of activity your child can be active in. There isn’t any specific diet for asthmatics, but it’s important
Asthma is a disease that currently has no cure and can only be controlled and managed through different treatment methods. If asthma is treated well it can prevent the flare up of symptoms such as coughing, diminish the dependence on quick relief medication, and help to minimize asthma attacks. One of the key factors to successful treatment of asthma is the creation of an asthma action plan with the help of a doctor that outlines medications and other tasks to help control the patient’s asthma ("How Is Asthma Treated and Controlled?"). The amount of treatment changes based on the severity of the asthma when it is first diagnosed and may be the dosage may be increased or decreased depending on how under control the patient’s asthma is. One of the main ways that asthma can be controlled is by becoming aware of the things that trigger attacks. For instance staying away from allergens such as pollen, animal fur, and air pollution can help minimize and manage the symptoms associated with asthma. Also if it is not possible to avoid the allergens that cause a patient’s asthma to flare up, they may need to see an allergist. These health professionals can help diagnosis what may need to be done in other forms of treatment such as allergy shots that can help decrease the severity of the asthma ("How Is Asthma Treated and Controlled?").