Cultural Competencies For Nurses Impact on Health and Illness

Question: Describe about the Case Study on Cultural Competencies For Nurses in the Impact on Health and Illness? Answer: A) According to the case study we can see that Mrs. G has visible breathing trouble and after the tests and examination it is clear that she has also got acute pneumonia due to prolonged bout of flu. Apart from that the tests have also revealed that she has mental problems as well. She suffers from hypertension and remains distressed and has recently reported to have chest pain when enquired by the nurse. According to World Health Organization definition Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Hence, according to the given definition Mrs. G could be referred as healthy when she is free of all kinds of mental and physical illness. She will have to be eradicated of all kinds of illness which she carries now so that she can be called healthy. The trouble of physical diseases like chest pain and pneumonia, the breathing problem will have to be cured along with that we will have to make sure that her flu does nt come back as it was the root cause of pneumonia in her body. Secondly her mental illness will have to be cured in order to transform her into a healthy person. The cause of hypertension and stress will have to identify through counseling and then will have to be addressed. Overall it could be said that she will have to be free of all kinds of diseases which includes both mental and physical illness so that she can be declared to be in good state of health. B) Over the years there have been a lot of research on the subject of illness and many scholars have defined the term illness in different ways. Hence, there are different definitions to illness. For the present case study and based on the condition of Mrs. G it could be said that she fits perfectly with a definition of illness (Dayer-Berenson 2014). In her case illness could be defined as the state of being unhealthy in the body or mind. She is in a state where her body and mind both are affected by disease. The body and mind are not working normally due to physical and mental trouble that she is in. It is very important for the responsible doctors and healthcare specialists to effectively communicate with her regarding her mental and physical problems (Du Pr 2010). It becomes extremely important for the doctors and nurses to identify the key problems that she is suffering from in order to be able to address those issues successfully and help her get cured (Payton 2009). Since she f its with one of the definition of illness it is very important to take extra care of her and try to resolve the physical problems of breathing, addressing the flu and curing the pneumonia so that a longer period of time could be invested to address the mental issues of hypertension and stress (Radley 2009). Hence it could be said that with her present state she could be declared ill as her body and mind have stopped working normally. C) Mrs. G is suffering from hypertension on the other hand she also has other physical diseases. Though physical diseases are easy to cure but at the same time if the patient is affected by mental illness it is often seen that physical diseases do not get cured very fast. In this case it is quite relevant since Mrs. G has hypertension (Rogers Pilgrim 2014). Hypertension is means she has high blood pressure and high blood pressure affects the heart perilously. Medicines work very slow as the blood pressure is high and heartbeat rate is fast since the heart pumps the blood very fast. Hypertension is one of the major causes of strokes and heart attacks, dementia, kidney problems and ophthalmic problems (Steiner 2014). Hypertension is a major cause of vascular dementia which prevents the brain from working and the person loses cognitive power and thinking capacity. She has been obstinate in ignoring medication in the first place which has taken a toll on her health. Mrs. G has responded very slow to the medication and treatment as she has hypertension the medicines take a lot of time to dissolve in blood and it acts late on the body. In most of the cases it has been seen that hypertension causes brain damage as the intricate nerve mechanism in our brain cannot stand the excessive pressure of blood and they rupture which leads to brain damage (Waugh Grant 2014). The lifestyle of Mrs. G has been quite unconventional due to this problem of hypertension she has already shown positive signs of level one dementia by keeping herself stressed which can be seen clearly and on the other hand it has also reflected on the physical development of her body and mind, but with her mental ailments taking the back seat through effective psychological treatment she has been less ignorant to medication in the later part. Though she is old and its quite natural to develop eye problems but hypertension problems of her could be held responsible for the deteriorating conditions of her ophthalmic state. There have been no signs of diabetes but its just a matter of time that she develops this problem as well (Weiss Lonnquist 2012). Overall it could be said that her mental condition is far more important than her physical condition and hence, it is quite important to effectively treat her mental condition of hypertension. If hypertension can be reduced or treated properly then the other physical ailments will be gone very soon as she will start responding to the medications instantly and conspicuous positive change will reflect in her (Weiss Lonnquist 2012). References Dayer-Berenson, L., 2014.Cultural Competencies For Nurses: Impact On Health And Illness. Jones Bartlett Publishers. Du Pr, A., 2010. Communicating about health: current issues and perspectives. Payton, A.R., 2009. Mental health, mental illness, and psychological distress: same continuum or distinct phenomena?Journal of health and Social Behavior,50(2), pp.213-227. Radley, A., 2009.Works of illness: Narrative, picturing and the social response to serious disease(Vol. 8). InkerMen Press. Rogers, A. and Pilgrim, D., 2014.A sociology of mental health and illness. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Steiner, R., 2014.Health and illness(Vol. 2). SteinerBooks. Waugh, A. and Grant, A., 2014.Ross Wilson anatomy and physiology in health and illness. Elsevier Health Sciences. Weiss, G.L. and Lonnquist, L.E., 2012.Sociology of health, healing, and illness. Prentice Hall.