Healthcare is one of the standing pillars of a country’s economy. It has a significant impact on the human capital of any state. An efficient and improved healthcare system will ensure a thriving economy.
On the other hand, a country with a struggling healthcare system will never facilitate sustainable economic growth.
Due to the long-term impacts of a country’s healthcare, the importance of an efficient disease management system can never be overstated.
CDMPlus can offer training both on-site and remotely in primary healthcare settings as well as community and aged care settings with chronic disease management templates.
One of the key hurdles that a country’s healthcare system faces is the presence of chronic diseases. They are the leading causes of death and disability all around the globe.
Chronic diseases affect all socioeconomic classes and are rapidly rising in all the worldwide regions.
Robust chronic disease management is the key to a stable healthcare system in such a scenario, and nurses play an important role.
They are the key advocates of all self-care and prevention approaches to chronic disease management.
Nurses hold paramount importance in actively curbing the cases of chronic illnesses. They can help their patients cope with chronic diseases by actively providing active support and care.
There are many effective methods for nurses to help their patients suffering from chronic illnesses. Most of them revolve around self-care and patient education. They are all given below.
- Providing Preventive Healthcare
Preventive healthcare has become one of the increasingly popular areas of disease management. It promotes a healthy lifestyle and can also prevent many chronic illnesses.
Through active prevention, many chronic diseases can be controlled and can also be stopped from advancing to a more dangerous phase.
The prime example is HIV, which, if not treated through preventive care, can develop into deadly AIDS.
Preventative healthcare can thus create a difference between HIV and AIDS and help patients understand treatment options.
Being diagnosed with HIV is not as deadly as it once was because of prevention and the active treatment of chronic HIV infection.
Nurses frequently assist HIV patients through prevention strategies to reduce the harm of HIV and stop it from developing into AIDS.
Through preventive healthcare, a deadly disease like HIV has become a chronic illness that can be managed long-term.
Nurses that are well-versed in preventive methods can assist their patients in coping with chronic illnesses like HIV infection.
2. Exercising Integrated Care
The terminology ‘integrated care’ is a broad and vague one. It encompasses a wide variety of topics. Sometimes, integrated care is a synonym for care management, disease management, or coordinated care.
At the crux, integrated care is the practice of providing seamless and continuous care to the patients.
It is a personalized model of treatment which serves to alleviate the chronic illness of a patient. The exact nature of the care is not fixed and is based on patients’ needs.
Integrated care can sometimes include necessary regular checkups, essential medications, screenings, monitoring, and coordinating treatments. Nurses who provide critical integrated care can improve a patient’s quality of life.
Quality integrated care also leads to a reduction in healthcare costs. The result is that the patient can cope with the chronic illness much more efficiently.
3. Improving Frequency of Visits
Nurses have the power to ease their patient’s suffering as much as possible. One of the hardest parts of chronic illness for any patient is the increased frequency of checkups and appointments.
The notion itself is quite daunting. However, thanks to the quality of service, nurses can help their patients improve their frequency of necessary medical visits and appointments.
It is worthy of mention that convincing patients to visit their doctors more often requires a blend of practices. It can be a combination of providing effective mental care and quality integrated care.
The patients that don’t miss their appointments are more capable of handling their chronic illnesses.
4. Providing Mental Support
Any hospital that regularly facilitates patients with chronic illnesses needs compassionate, sympathetic, and experienced nurses in their profession. Nurses need to exercise patience while dealing with chronically ill patients.
Being afflicted with chronic illness can take a massive toll on a patient’s mental health. While providing integrated care and medication is crucial, nurses must keep their patients in high spirits.
The mental health of chronically ill patients is one of the most important things to consider for a nurse.
Such patients must be taken great care of. It is natural for these patients to become depressed, hampering their ability to cope with their chronic illness.
A nurse that knows how to handle such patients can save them from depression and unnecessary stress.
One of the key ways to do that is to lend a listening ear to the patients. Often, the patients know about their condition quite well.
Managing patients’ mental health is quite a challenge; however, it can help patients effectively in managing their chronic diseases.
5. Providing Patient Education
Patient education plays an important role in effective chronic disease management. Patients with chronic conditions require sustained care and self-treatment for extended periods.
Nurses can help their patients by educating them about self-care and self-treatment for their respective illnesses.
Equipping the patient with proper knowledge can help distinguish between successful self-management and poor patient outcomes.
Nurses can impart the necessary knowledge and help their patients develop high degrees of self-efficacy. In the face of prolonged illness and health obstacles, only a patient’s self-efficacy can help them cope.
Patients with self-treatment skills can maintain their physical and psychological well-being and enjoy a good quality of life.
Such patients can effectively cope with their chronic conditions and become more aware of their illness.
Final Thoughts
A country’s healthcare is one of the most important factors in deciding its economic growth. A successful country with stable and cheap healthcare will have a profitable human capital.
Chronic diseases pose one of the biggest challenges to any healthcare system all around the globe. Nurses can play an important role in chronic disease management by providing vital care to their patients.
Such vital care is usually a combination of integrated care, mental support, patient education, and preventive healthcare.
In contrast, nurses can help their patients maintain their physical and psychological health despite their chronic diseases through such measures. It allows them to cope with their chronic illnesses effectively.
