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
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. It is a reversible airway obstruction, occurring 8 to 10% of the population worldwide. According to a study in 2005, asthma affects over 15 million Americans, with more than 2 million annual emergency room visits. Asthma patients have a hyper-responsiveness in their airways and generally and increase in their airway smooth muscle cell mass. This hyperplasia is due to the normal response to the injury and repair to the airway caused by exacerbations. The main choice of therapy for asthma patients is β2- adrenergic agonists. Racemic albuterol has been the drug of choice for a short acting bronchodilator for a long time, but since the development of levalbuterol, there is the question of which drug is a better choice for therapy. Efficacy and cost of treatment must both be taken into consideration in each study of these therapies to determine which is best for the treatment of asthma.
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...
The three measurable outcome of asthma management includes improved quality of life, decreased use of resources, and increased patient and family satisfaction. Regardless of the practice settings case managers help to increase access to health care service, reduces health care cost, improved outcomes of the care delivered and over all improve the quality of care (Powell). The categories of outcome indicators are
...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.
Imagine a young child competing with his or her fellow classmates during recess and immediately losing the ability to breathe normally. He or she stops in the middle of the competition and falls to the ground while holding his or her chest trying to find air. When you are young, being able to keep up with your peers during recess and sporting events is very important, however, having asthma restricts this. Asthma has a significant impact on childhood development and the diagnosis of asthma for children 18 years and younger has dramatically increased over the years. Asthma is known as a “chronic inflammation of the small and large airways” with “evident bronchial hyper-responsiveness, airflow obstruction, and in some patients, sub-basement fibrosis and over-secretion of mucus” (Toole, 2013). The constant recreation of the lung walls can even occur in young children and “lead to permanent lung damages and reduced lung function” (Toole, 2013). While one of the factors is genetics, many of the following can be prevented or managed. Obesity, exposure to secondhand smoke, and hospitalization with pneumonia in the early years of life have all been suggested to increase children’s risk of developing asthma.
"Asthma is a pulmonary disease with the following characteristics: 1) airway obstruction that is reversible in most patients either spontaneously or with treatment; 2) airway inflammation; and 3) increased airway responsiveness to a variety of stimuli" (Enright, 1996, p. 375). There presently exist many varieties of asthma that differ in the severity, means of induction, and methods of treatment. One type is exercise-induced asthma. "Exercise-induced asthma (EIA) is a temporary increase in airway resistance and acute narrowing of the airway that occurs after several minutes of strenuous exercise, usually after the exercise had ceased" (Spector, 1993, p. 571). Perfectly healthy individuals with no history of asthma or allergies can experience EIA. EIA can be found in 5.6%-25% of the general population and in 40%-90% of asthmatics (Randolph, 1997). EIA has been recognized for over 300 years, but only recently have it's pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment been studied in detail.
The practical application of healthcare system requires certain type of training and ability of an individual to work in that particular setting; moreover, these training modules, which are available for nurses, are primarily for the purpose of enhancing the quality of work, satisfaction and quality of treatment. The role of a Registered Nurse cannot be neglected in the provision of quality and safe care to patients and adopt procedures adequate for the condition of the patients because they work at the front line level. Registered Nurses have direct dealing with patients and integration of personal and professional skills is necessary. Therefore, there are certain attributes that are necessary to be present in a Registered Nurse for accurately performing various tasks. These include; Workload management, leadership qualities, control of practice, professional development, communication and organizational loyalty (Daly & Carnwell 2003, pp. 158-167). These attributes hold significance in terms of obtaining positive outcome for not only the Registered Nurse but also the organization and the patient. Workload should be managed in such a way that the care process is not affected. Registered Nurse should have leadership qualities to help, motivate and inspire other nurses. Similarly, a Registered nurse should also enable and promote learning opportunities for other nurses. A Registered Nurse has responsibilities towards the subordinates, patients and most importantly to the organization. The code of ethics and principles of practice must be followed and the practice of the nurse should be in the line of the organization’s working principles. The responsibility should be met as accountability f...
Pedersen, Soren, and Stanley J. Szefler, eds. Childhood Asthma. Vol. 209. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2006. Print.
Asthma is a condition of the bronchial tubes characterized by episodes of constriction and increased mucous production. A person with asthma has bronchial tubes that are super sensitive to various stimuli, or triggers, that can produce asthma symptom.In other words, asthmatics have special sensitivity that causes their lung tissue to react far more than is should to various stimulating factors or triggers. For this reason, people with asthma are said to have "twitchy airways."Some symptoms that people with asthma commonly experience are chest tightenings, difficulty inhaling and exhaling, wheezing, production of large amounts of mucous in their windpipes and coughing.Coughing can be frequent or intermittent, and can be loose-reflecting extra mucous secretion in the airways or dry and deep-reflecting tight bronchospasms. Not all these symptoms occur in every case of asthma.Sometimes people may have coughing without and symptoms for months or even years before it's realized that they are asthmatic. Interestingly enough, asthma symptoms are most severe at night, while we're lying down our airways narrow as a result of gravity changes. Also our lungs do not clear secretions as well at night, which leads to mucous retention, and that can increase the obstruction to air flow.
Asthma is also a serious public health issue because it imposes huge impact not only population but also health care systems. According to recent statistics, each year, 5000 deaths, half million hospitalizations, and two million emergency visits are solely explained by asthma [1]. It is also leading cause of absence from school and work. Economic impact is enormous, too. 11 billion dollars of cost was due to only medications of asthma in 1994 [2], which was later increased up to 14 billion dollars in 2002 [3], and still increasing. Unfortunately, this financial burden of asthma falls disproportionately to some vulnerable subgroups: minorities, and children.
Asthma is the most common long-term condition for young children in Ballarat and the leading cause of hospitalisation for children under 14 years. The impacts of asthma can be significant for young sufferers and their families, and may include school absences, the need for urgent medical assistance and even premature death.
Asthma is treated with two types of medicines: long-term control and quick-relief medicines. Long-term control medicines help reduce airway inflammation and prevent asthma symptoms. Quick-relief, or "rescue," medicines relieve asthma symptoms that may flare up.
Asthma is a disease that affects the breathing passages of the lungs (bronchioles). People who have asthma always have difficulty breathing. In the United States alone, over twenty-five million Americans are diagnosed with asthma. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asthma is known to be the third most common disease as well as a leading cause to hospitalization in America. In 2008, one in two people were reported to have asthma attacks which is roughly about twelve million asthma attacks a year. In 2007, the United States spent more than fifty-six million dollars on medical costs, lost school and work days, and early deaths from asthma. Asthma is not visible to the human eye, so it is difficult in an emergency situation for the lay responder to tell whether the victim is having trouble breathing or having an asthma attack. Unlike people who are diabetic and have to wear medical ID bracelets, people with asthma are not required to wear them, but it should be recommended to help the lay responder, the doctors and the paramedics identify the situation they are dealing with at hand. For hours, days or even months a person may be normal but then an attack may suddenly happen out of nowhere.
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 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?").