The Health-Illness Spectrum in Patient Care
Assessment Description
Research the health-illness continuum and its relevance to patient care. In a 750-1,000-word paper, discuss the relevance of the continuum to patient care and present a perspective of your current state of health in relation to the wellness spectrum. Include the following: Examine the health-illness continuum and discuss why this perspective is important to consider in relation to health and the human experience when caring for patients. Explain how understanding the health-illness continuum enables you, as a health care provider, to better promote the value and dignity of individuals or groups and to serve others in ways that promote human flourishing and are consistent with the Christian worldview. Reflect on your overall state of health. Discuss what behaviors support or detract from your health and well-being. Explain where you currently fall on the health-illness continuum. Discuss the options and resources available to you to help you move toward wellness on the health-illness spectrum. Describe how these would assist in moving you toward wellness (managing a chronic disease, recovering from an illness, self-actualization, etc.). You are required to cite a minimum of three peer-reviewed sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years, appropriate for the assignment criteria, and relevant to nursing practice. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance. Benchmark Information This benchmark assesses the following programmatic competency: RN-BSN 5.3: Understand the human experience across the health-illness continuum.
The Health-Illness Spectrum in Patient Care
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The Health-Illness Spectrum in Patient Care
The health-illness continuum is relevant to patient care and individuals' wellness and health. Understanding the health-illness perspective helps nurses to enhance patients' health, value, and dignity and serve them in a human flourishing and better patient experience during care delivery while aligning with a Christian worldview. This research aims to enlighten nurses on the benefits of individualized care and the health-illness continuum in care delivery.
The health-illness spectrum is an ongoing process that shows different illnesses and health statuses since people have varying levels of wellness or sickness. Nurses must review patients’ health-illness continuum during nursing interventions due to its insights and advantages. They should coordinate with other healthcare workers to help patients move to higher well-being levels beyond the neutrality point of the spectrum (Kishan, 2020). In addition, they should continue to treat and monitor ill patients instead of stopping at the neutral level. Kishan (2020) emphasized the health-illness continuum’s significance of reviewing the whole patient while considering varying aspects, such as their beliefs, values, emotions, thoughts, and norms. Therefore, the health-illness continuum is relevant to nurses during patient care due to its multiple benefits and roles, which promote patients' dignity, value, experience, and flourishing.
The health-illness model informs nurses of their patient's progress or changes because it indicates their well-being and health, which deteriorates as the patients move down from the spectrum's center and improves as they move up from its center (Kishan, 2020). Furthermore, it guides nurses on how patients can attain a neutral point when using specific treatment interventions, including drug therapy, behavioral, or psychotherapy, to alleviate their symptoms and improve their experience. Kishan (2020) further highlighted the health-illness continuum's relevance to nurses because it offers guidance on incorporating other treatment strategies that enable patients to move to higher wellness levels. Additionally, the spectrum directs nurses to adopt a holistic approach to optimal health and well-being as they consider multiple factors, such as the patient's physical body and social, spiritual, and emotional aspects.
Nurses should thoroughly understand the health-illness continuum to promote people’s values and dignity, provide nursing care that enhances human flourishing, and ensure consistency with a Christian perspective. The health-illness spectrum enhances human flourishing by enabling nurses to provide patient-centered, whole-person, and holistic care (Pfeiffer, 2018). Such care focuses on patients' whole aspects, such as physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional, enhancing patients' dignity and value (Kishan, 2020). Nurses also ensure optimal...