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Care of Acutely Ill Patient

In: Other Topics

Submitted By Mulonso87
Words 2996
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For the purpose of this essay, the chosen aspect of care for the management of COPD is oxygen therapy, which is the medical intervention for administering oxygen. Oxygen therapy has been found to be beneficial in reducing breathlessness and increasing exercise tolerance (Journal of
Community Nursing, (Edwards) 2005). However, the British Thoracic Society
(2008) state that oxygen is a treatment for hypoxamia and, not for breathlessness because oxygen has not been shown to have any effect on the sensation of breathlessness in non-hypoxaemic patients.
COPD is a disease that progresses slowly, as a result many other pathological occur, where people cannot breathe in and out properly because of long-term damage to the lungs, and it disrupts the normal ventilation and perfusion process of the lungs (Nurse Prescribing, Barnet, M. 2007).
COPD damages airways in the lungs and causes them to narrow, which in turn makes it harder for air to enter and exit the lungs (British Lung
Foundation, 2007). The narrowing and blockage of the airways are due to the increasing production of mucous and thickening of the airway walls. Over time, there is also damage to the air sacs where oxygen passes from air into the blood and the changes start with inflammation in the airways. This is the body’s way to responding to harmful substances, often due to cigarette smoking, over a length of time (NICE, 2008). There are over
900,000 patients diagnosed with COPD in the UK currently, and it is believed that as many are not diagnosed. COPD is a progressive disease, which often explains why those diagnosed with the disease are in their fifties (NICE, 2008). The progression and damage of COPD cannot be reversed or treated, but patients can be given treatments to relieve the symptoms and comfort them using oxygen therapy. COPD is distinguished from other similar chronic

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