Respiratory health is an important area for modern medicine if the increasing number of respiratory infections globally is anything to go by. The increasing number of respiratory-related viruses and respiratory complications from autoimmune responses threatens to increase mortality rates in modern healthcare settings. In the same breath, modern nursing management is moving towards personalized care, where nursing services are tailored for a specific patient with priorities given to each patient’s needs. Therefore, to achieve the right balance between patient and organizational goals, nurses must strike the right balance in the management plan for patients with respiratory disorders. The plan for respiratory patients should find a way to integrate physiological, social, and psychological care to ensure that the patient recovers on time and has the chance to lead a quality life.
In the heat of the pandemic, I came across a patient diagnosed with COVID -19 on the back of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD), which he had recently recovered from before contracting the virus. Therefore, my main treatment plan revolved around helping the patient to recover from COVID -19 and reducing the risk of the patient contracting COPD again. Being a continuum care plan, I believe the plan should begin at the hospital and extend to social care, with home-based care as the ideal step for the intervention plan.
I would ensure effective airway clearance and optimum gas exchange would primarily ensure the timely recovery of the patients. Most respiratory tract complications result from insufficient airway clearance since the reduced spaces in the airways are the source of stasis secretions and a risk factor for infection (Faniyi et al., 2022). Ensuring the airway is clear would reduce the susceptibility through an attachment to the constricted spaces. An early assessment of the cough and breathing sounds of the patient may help analyze the state of the patient’s airway. Additionally, the sputum’s viscosity and quantity reduce gaseous exchange in the airways. The patient’s alveoli recoil is key in ensuring optimum gaseous exchange. By assessing the sputum and optimum gas volumes, nursing interventions can address airway clearance, increase gaseous exchange in patients, and prevent further complications in the patient’s respiratory system.
Modern respiratory complications management has slightly tilted toward incorporating psychological care into integrated care concepts. Therefore, in my care plan, I would include a psychological care plan that would provide post-treatment support and help the patient cope with the diagnosis. Through customized care ideologies, modern respiratory care management requires adopting tailored services for a specific patient and reducing the patient’s hospitalization length. Considering that many respiratory complications are communicable, adopting the healthcare goal of reducing them would reduce the risk of nosocomial infection. Accordingly, psychological care plans would increase the recovery speed of patients with respiratory issues and increase their strength and awareness of medication compliance. Patients may also be exposed to post-treatment psychological issues, as with COVID-19 (Aiyegbusi et al., 2021). Moreover, psychological help would ensure that the patient is in the right state of mind to master the assistive breathing guidance, such as reducing possible obstructions to the airway and how to manage emotions that might alter the breathing patterns in cases of mental complications such as anxiety.
In liaison, incorporating family members and social networks in treating patients with respiratory problems would be an integral part of my nursing care plan during the patient’s recovery from COVID-19. “When delegating care activities, the client’s or family member’s preferences for treatment or care must be considered” (Huber & Joseph, 2020, p. 246). Most respiratory infections arise from environmental factors or issues that can trigger autoimmune responses that block the airways. Therefore, including the patient’s immediate family in the treatment plan for respiratory issues would help achieve the desired health goals from a long-term care perspective. The family should be made aware of the pertinent risk factors regarding the patient’s respiratory condition and how to encourage the patient to stick to the medication guide. Further basic respiratory measures, such as a spirometry guide, should be given to the family members to reduce the chances of readmission.
Moreover, I would ensure early assessment of the patient’s tissue oxygenation status and regular use of incentive spirometry, among other support services, which is key to the recovery of patients. By assessing the tissue oxygenation status regularly, the nurse would monitor changes in the patient’s breathing pattern to determine how to handle the results. The tissue oxygenation status assessment would reveal whether the patient is improving or requires more medical attention. Further, as a nurse, ensuring constant changes in position to reduce the chances of blocking the airway during hospitalization is key to recovery. The patient should be informed of how to manage basic concepts such as respiration/perfusion, improving respiration rates, ensuring optimal oxygen supply, and enhancing timely recovery.
I would incorporate nutritional education to ensure that the patient recovers from some respiratory complications on time, especially COVID-19. Patients with poor nutrition conditions are at risk of developing conditions such as primary lung disease, which corresponds to the patient’s nutritional uptake. Further, conditions such as primary lung disease would increase the patient’s nutritional demands and increase the risk of depriving them of essential nutrients if their nutrition is not addressed. Further, diseases in the SARS category demand additional nutrition checks to ensure the patient’s timely recovery. Also, malnutrition impairs the lung defence mechanism and exposes the organ to external viruses if necessary measures are not adopted. The perceived lack of nutrients would additionally reduce respiratory muscle strength, which is critical to ensure a constant supply of oxygen to the systems.
After I analyzed the patient’s state, I subjected the patient to either pulmonary rehabilitation. Pulmonary rehabilitation would include exercises and education on improving respiratory conditions. The long-term care plan would begin by helping the patients handle diagnosis-related anxiety by customizing specific exercises depending on the patient’s ability. Pulmonary rehabilitation plans effectively reduce the pain that respiratory diseases cause in patients. Although palliative care was an option, I reserved it in case the patient’s condition deteriorated. If it came to that, palliative care plans would be crafted based on reliable criteria, typically determining whether the patient deserves aggressive or palliative care in the first place (Huber & Joseph, 2020). These plans would also be customized according to the patient’s illness and the stage of that illness. For instance, managing stress levels and reducing pain if my patient was to develop cancer.
Further ensuring that all operational risk factors in healthcare settings are addressed would be a unique step toward reducing hospital-based respiratory infections. Children are the population that faces the greatest risk from infections. The increased hospital-based infections among healthcare providers and patients are among the concerns of handling patients with respiratory issues, particularly infectious diseases. as was the case during the pandemic. According to Huber & Joseph (2020, p. 340), “emerging new epidemics such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have raised questions about the health system’s preparedness to respond.” Strict healthcare protocols, such as using PPE during the administration of care, would protect other patients from infections and ensure that the integrity of the healthcare protection systems is maintained in the case of an infection. Hence strategies such as ensuring sufficient ventilation in the hospital wards and proper disposal of wastes may reduce the risks in a hospital setting. Hence focusing on environmental concerns would be an effective way of handling respiratory patients and reducing the risk of nosocomial infections in the facility.
References
Aiyegbusi, O. L., Hughes, S. E., Turner, G., Rivera, S. C., McMullan, C., Chandan, J. S., Haroon, S., Price, G., Davies, E. H., Nirantharakumar, K., Sapey, E., Calvert, M. J., & TLC Study Group (2021). Symptoms, complications and management of long COVID: a review. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 114(9), 428–442. https://doi.org/10.1177/01410768211032850
Faniyi, A. A., Hughes, M. J., Scott, A., Belchamber, K. B. R., & Sapey, E. (2022). Inflammation, ageing and diseases of the lung: Potential therapeutic strategies from shared biological pathways. British journal of pharmacology, 179(9), 1790–1807. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.15759
Huber, D & Joseph, M. L. (2020). Leadership and nursing care management-e-book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
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