Personal Development and Reflection

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:qu4HxetxHFoJ:staffcentral.brighton.ac.uk/CLT/events/documents/Ramage%2520Example%25202.doc+Gibbs+Reflective+Model&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Gibbs' model of reflection (1988)

I think this practice is so important for professional development and growth of the perfessional nurse in their daily interactions with patients, families, or students. It is so helpful to understand and improve one's practice.

Here are links to articles to further discuss the impact Nursing has on Disease Management and preventative health care.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/331/7515/485

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MDR/is_/ai_n6332774

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:Ubm9Mic2ljAJ:www.srph.tamhsc.edu/centers/srhrc/PDF/DMPB0504.pdf+nursing%2Bchronic+disease+management&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=13&gl=us

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1199024

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family."
~ Kofi Annan

That is why it is so important to have the opportunity to teach and empower members, patients, and people in Nursing. It gives people the opportunity to make the correct choices about their responsibility with their healthcare. That is why I so appreciate Barbara Carper's theory on nursing. Learn the information to teach (empirics), teach it in a way the person understands and implements into their knowledge base or life (aesthetics), understand themselves and constantly learn and apply that knowledge to their own practice (self-learning), and do the right thing in the right way (ethics).

The Whole Person

With the complexity of people and their chronic diseases the simplistic classification system of diagnosis of those disease states must be restructured. With the direct correctional relationship between say hypertension and diabetes people have to stop looking at them as separate disease states. 75% of Diabetics die related to cardiovascular complications yet people see diabetes and heart disease as two separate issues. People have to start looking at their own individual lifestyles and see the cause and effect relationship between their disease states.

Implementation of an idea

To affect change in peoples chronic conditions, Nursing must take a preemptive role educating the patient on lifestyle management and the importance of lifestyle modifications. Currently, the directive model is used too much in planning care, example: the provider prescribes an antibiotic for 10 days, the patient takes it and voila the illness is cured. This approach may have positive outcomes in acute illness situations however, in the area of chronic disease management it is imperative for the health care team including the person the care is centered around to work in a collaborative format. The nurse must educate the person with the disease to take an active role in their care. A nurse working with Disease Management must be able to teach patients/members disease specific skills, must encourage patients/members to choose healthy behaviors, must train the person in problem-solving skills, assist the person with the emotional impact of having a chronic condition, make sure they are receiving regular and sustained follow-up; and finally and most importantly, encourage the patient/member to participate actively in the management of the disease.