NSG 4055 Week 1 Discussion
There are many factors that affect chronic illness—chronic pain, stigma, social isolation, altered mobility,
or fatigue. Utilizing your learning from your readings and the South University Online Library resources,
respond to the following questions:
Based on the research, which of these factors have the greatest impact on a patient? Why?
Contrast at least two ways the factors would affect a twelve-year-old with the way they would
affect a seventy-five-year-old.
Consider the twelve-year-old and the seventy-five-year-old have a chronic illness. How does the
chronically ill patient's illness trajectory influences the plan of care?
I think that the factors listed can have varying impacts on a person, based in part on their particular
chronic illness. For example, a patient with HIV might feel a greater impact of stigma and social isolation,
where the stroke victim might deal with altered mobility and fatigue. The patient with Crohn’s disease
might feel that chronic pain and fatigue are the prominent factors. Having said that, I think that the of the
factors listed, stigma is the worst factor a person can experience, because stigma has no direct
relationship to any particular disease process. This is an issue created by others and is a social aspects
rather than a physiological aspect of an illness.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is probably the perfect example of how stigma can
have such an impact on people who have it. I can clearly remember in the eighties when AIDS was
gaining notoriety that the world’s blood supply was at risk because none of it had been tested as part of
the acquisition process. This led to many hemophiliacs contracting HIV due to tainted blood transfusions.
There was also a high incidence of HIV infections in the homosexual community ( Moalusi, & Judgeo,
2014). A person’s sexual orientation should not be cited as a causative factor, however while the
hemophiliac who contracted HIV was portrayed as a victim, the homosexual was portrayed as having
some culpability, and some people even used their religious beliefs to condemn the homosexual and cited
scripture and “god’s wrath” as the reason for their exposure to the disease (Stokell, 2009). The reality is
that nobody knew what HIV was at the time, or exactly how it was transmitted. The stigma associated
with AIDS got so bad that national legislation was passed to protect those with the disease from being
compelled to reveal their diagnosis to anyone. The subject of stigma and AIDS was the subject of the
movie Philadelphia in which actor Tom Hanks earned an Oscar award for his portrayal of an attorney who
contracted AIDS and lost his job because of his diagnosis (IMDb.com, 1993).
Considering a twelve-year-old versus a seventy-five-year old with chronic illnesses, I think that the
illness trajectory of the twelve-year-old would have a greater focus on illness management from a
preventative standpoint, where the seventy-five-year olds trajectory might focus more on a symptomatic
treatment with prevention taking a back seat. In the emergency room where I work, we typically see
children with acute issues that might have chronic illnesses (i.e. the type one diabetic who presents with
nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea), where our plan of care will be controlling the symptoms of his acute
illness, while being mindful of his blood glucose during treatment, and reinforcing the need to continue
insulin therapy during the illness regardless of food intake. In the seventy-five-year old patient, we might
see peripheral vascular disease secondary to diabetes. In this case, we must provide education on why
blood sugar control is critical to reducing the effects of the PVD in the hope of improving circulation and
maintaining the viability of the patient’s extremities.
Part 2
Choose one strength and one weakness of Parsons sick role model. Do you agree with them?
Why or why not? Justify your answers with the readings or articles from the South University
Online Library.
There are many factors that affect chronic illness—chronic pain, stigma, social isolation, altered mobility,
or fatigue. Utilizing your learning from your readings and the South University Online Library resources,
respond to the following questions:
Based on the research, which of these factors have the greatest impact on a patient? Why?
Contrast at least two ways the factors would affect a twelve-year-old with the way they would
affect a seventy-five-year-old.
Consider the twelve-year-old and the seventy-five-year-old have a chronic illness. How does the
chronically ill patient's illness trajectory influences the plan of care?
I think that the factors listed can have varying impacts on a person, based in part on their particular
chronic illness. For example, a patient with HIV might feel a greater impact of stigma and social isolation,
where the stroke victim might deal with altered mobility and fatigue. The patient with Crohn’s disease
might feel that chronic pain and fatigue are the prominent factors. Having said that, I think that the of the
factors listed, stigma is the worst factor a person can experience, because stigma has no direct
relationship to any particular disease process. This is an issue created by others and is a social aspects
rather than a physiological aspect of an illness.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is probably the perfect example of how stigma can
have such an impact on people who have it. I can clearly remember in the eighties when AIDS was
gaining notoriety that the world’s blood supply was at risk because none of it had been tested as part of
the acquisition process. This led to many hemophiliacs contracting HIV due to tainted blood transfusions.
There was also a high incidence of HIV infections in the homosexual community ( Moalusi, & Judgeo,
2014). A person’s sexual orientation should not be cited as a causative factor, however while the
hemophiliac who contracted HIV was portrayed as a victim, the homosexual was portrayed as having
some culpability, and some people even used their religious beliefs to condemn the homosexual and cited
scripture and “god’s wrath” as the reason for their exposure to the disease (Stokell, 2009). The reality is
that nobody knew what HIV was at the time, or exactly how it was transmitted. The stigma associated
with AIDS got so bad that national legislation was passed to protect those with the disease from being
compelled to reveal their diagnosis to anyone. The subject of stigma and AIDS was the subject of the
movie Philadelphia in which actor Tom Hanks earned an Oscar award for his portrayal of an attorney who
contracted AIDS and lost his job because of his diagnosis (IMDb.com, 1993).
Considering a twelve-year-old versus a seventy-five-year old with chronic illnesses, I think that the
illness trajectory of the twelve-year-old would have a greater focus on illness management from a
preventative standpoint, where the seventy-five-year olds trajectory might focus more on a symptomatic
treatment with prevention taking a back seat. In the emergency room where I work, we typically see
children with acute issues that might have chronic illnesses (i.e. the type one diabetic who presents with
nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea), where our plan of care will be controlling the symptoms of his acute
illness, while being mindful of his blood glucose during treatment, and reinforcing the need to continue
insulin therapy during the illness regardless of food intake. In the seventy-five-year old patient, we might
see peripheral vascular disease secondary to diabetes. In this case, we must provide education on why
blood sugar control is critical to reducing the effects of the PVD in the hope of improving circulation and
maintaining the viability of the patient’s extremities.
Part 2
Choose one strength and one weakness of Parsons sick role model. Do you agree with them?
Why or why not? Justify your answers with the readings or articles from the South University
Online Library.
