Introduction
Chronic health conditions are increasingly endangering the lives of many people across the globe, particularly older individuals. The list of chronic health issues is long, including all forms of illness that take more than a year and rely on continuous medical care to cope, with heart-related diseases, cancer, and diabetes taking the top spot on the list. Their impacts cannot be overlooked as the world’s population is experiencing consequential deaths and unbearable pains from diseases like stroke and other diseases like cancer.
In the U.S., stroke has been ranked among the top death-causing conditions, leading to more disability issues among chronic health conditions (Oyake et al., 2023). Stroke is a medical condition in which the brain’s normal blood flow is cut short (Oyake et al., 2023). This can be due to a blood clot that prevents the blood from passing through the vessels or a rupture of the blood vessel, which prevents blood from passing through to the brain. However, this is a critical issue as it causes damage and eventual death of the brain cells. Consequently, the victim experiences severe health outcomes, including cognitive impairments, communication difficulties, emotional changes, and mobility issues.
These provisions have forced healthcare systems, private organizations, community-building bodies, and governmental agencies to seek viable strategies to overcome these diseases. However, rehabilitation procedures are among the leading approaches that can lead to significant outcomes. They have been at the forefront of managing various illnesses and giving patients a way to improve their lives (Oyake et al., 2023). The primary aim of this study is to analyze how rehabilitation can help stroke victims regain a sense of normalcy by recovering their lost potential and enhancing their overall well-being. This involves uncovering various rehabilitation strategies, such as physical, occupational, and speech therapies, and potentially managing stroke symptoms.
Case Scenario
Referring to a realistic case of a stroke patient offers a critical lens to understand the role of rehabilitation approaches in leveraging the impacts of chronic health issues. In my internship program in a healthcare organization, I encountered a patient presenting severe chronic health issues that required immediate rehabilitation and health support to overcome and cope with the overwhelming impacts of a stroke. Mrs. B was 79 years old when she was brought to the facility. She had been brought to the facility after experiencing a series of episodes of stroke for the last seven months to get an applicable strategy to overcome the issue. In addition, she had a history of hypertension.
However, appropriate care measures were not implemented to help her resolve the issue on time. At the time of her appointment, the left side of her body was hard to control, exposing her to various problems like low mobility and speech. She could not carry out her daily activities the same way she used to.
The facility held her in a ward for a few days, providing proper nursing care to help her survive the severe symptoms. She was eventually transferred to a rehabilitation center to get exceptional care services to help her regain a sense of normalcy in her daily survival and chores. Throughout her stay in the facility, Mrs. B received special attention, focusing more on physical and occupational therapy. Simultaneously, Mrs. B’s family was extensively involved in her care process, encouraging them to be there for her, give her mental support, and attend to her basic needs as she desired.
Interventions to Support Adaptation
The process of surviving stroke attacks can be discouraging, but physical, speech, and occupational therapies offer a promising strategy to cope with the issue. It involves a series of physical attempts to improve strength and mobility (O’Sullivan et al., 2019). This means it involves the implementation of physical exercise, through the help of a professional expert, to help individuals develop the strength and confidence to overcome mobility issues.
To Mrs. B, the care providers must encourage her to start autonomous movements. This includes helping her move across the bed and occasionally changing positions (O’Sullivan et al., 2019). The primary aim of this step is to help the patient build strength for passive movements, such as independently moving their hands or legs.
Moreover, the physical therapist initiates the next step and encourages patients to move around, get out of bed, and support their weight with no or little assistance, depending on their progress. The process works closely with occupational and speech therapy to attain a significant impact. Depending on Mrs. B’s symptoms, she needs all these strategies to help her get her normal speech abilities and overcome the symptoms impacting her well-being.
Physical, speech and occupational therapies will help Mrs. B in many ways. Stroke patients who receive physical therapy develop strengths and may start to show natural recovery without further intervention (O’Sullivan et al., 2019). Repeated exercise also helps patients avoid issues of muscle atrophy, where a patient stimulates the muscles to help regain the connection with the brain (O’Sullivan et al., 2019). Additionally, building physical strength, flexibility, and enhanced mobility through assistive devices that the care professionals provide to manage immobility symptoms enhances the overall quality of life, as their ability to regain their everyday lives and undertake various day-to-day duties is enhanced (O’Sullivan et al., 2019). Consequently, the patient will be more independent and make a significant positive move.
The Role of Nurses
Nurses play a vital role in assisting older adults in managing chronic health conditions. Stroke is not an exception. They play a critical role in patients’ assessment to identify the severity of stroke, pinpoint potential physical care services that can help them cope with the issues, and motor their daily activities and progress to attain a critical outcome from the medical interventions that are suggested by physicians and therapy experts (Clare, 2020). In addition, nurses help administer various medical procedures and ensure patients stick to their prescriptions (Clare, 2020). While doctors give the instruction and intervention procedures, nurses are the key individuals who make those strategies work
Nurses also help patients and their families understand the scope of the care process. In this light, they offer them critical information to help them understand what is needed and what must be avoided to aid the patient’s recovery. In the case of Mrs. B, her family is guided on the support their patient needs to cope with the issue, including constant communication and being there to attend to her needs whenever possible.
It makes nurses integral to the patient’s recovery, ensuring that nothing gets out of hand or misses the target goal set by doctors. They offer mental support, care for the patient physically, and offer them the potential knowledge they need to stay within the intervention’s demand (Clare, 2020). Consequently, their role aids in faster recovery and maintenance of quality care.
Opportunities for Change
Enhancing care provisions for patients with chronic health issues like stroke requires more multifaceted and well-coordinated care facilities. These patients need special care other than the standard care services that physicians offer, like giving drug prescriptions or providing physical medical procedures. Instead, the patients, who include older patients like Mrs. B, require advanced facilities that promote personalized connection with caregivers, constant monitoring, and flexibility in giving the care to match their overarching demands in the time care process.
A potential opportunity to cater to the above needs requires a change to include highly integrated and well-defined care models that offer personalized and targeted care interventions. This calls for enhanced coordination among doctors, nurses, and other personnel involved in the care process (Feng et al., 2020). Improved communication and understanding between care providers must be established to ensure everyone stays in their lane and contributes to the overall quality of care needed to intervene.
Moreover, there is an opportunity to implement current technological advancements toward attaining quality care for chronic conditions. There is a rising need to enhance access to care. However, those in remote regions or lacking proper transportation systems to reach care facilities on time still suffer (Myers, 2018). Technology offers a viable strategy to overcome these issues, with technological solutions like telemedicine and remote monitoring tools providing a feasible strategy to access medical care (Myers, 2018). Patients will get quality and appointment care to their patients at the comfort of their homes.
In addition, extending care policies that promote research on chronic care interventions paves the way for more reliable and strategic approaches to enhance patient care. This can include providing resources and essential funding to promote research approaches (Feng et al., 2020). The opportunity is promising as it allows care providers to uncover various aspects of their services and identify gaps that will offer more personalized and targeted care for their patients. Ultimately, improvements and access to knowledge will allow for proper decision-making processes and informed strategies to enhance care services.
Conclusion
More Americans and other places worldwide continue to feel the overarching impacts of chronic issues. Stroke is a devastating issue that impacts the brain and deters me from coordinating various body parts after it has been deprived of enough oxygen supply by broken or blocked blood vessels. It leads to multiple issues, like emotional, physical, and cognitive impairments.
This calls for an immediate and well-structured intervention process. In this light, rehabilitation, including physical, speech, and occupational therapy, offers a practical approach to leverage the effects of stroke among older adults. These strategies help patients regain their physical strength and mobility and regain a sense of emotional motivation.
Consequently, a well-developed rehabilitation process incorporating physical exercise, speech training, and controlling the symptoms is a significant step to improving and promoting a quality outcome for stroke patients. However, the role of nurses cannot be overlooked, as they set a favorable environment to help these strategies work. They are involved in monitoring, providing proper education services, and coordinating all care provisions needed to help patients cope during care. Moreover, this field is open to many opportunities for improvement. Technology, favorable policies that promote further research, and the introduction of well-coordinated healthcare models clear the path for improvement and the ability to enhance quality care for chronic health issues.
References
Clare, C. S. (2020). Role of the nurse in acute stroke care. Nursing Standard, 35(4), 75–82. Web.
Feng, Z., Glinskaya, E., Chen, H., Gong, S., Qiu, Y., Xu, J., & Yip, W. (2020). Long-term care system for older adults in China: Policy landscape, challenges, and prospects. The Lancet, 396(10259), 1362–1372. Web.
Myers, C. R. (2018). Using telehealth to remediate rural mental health and healthcare disparities. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 40(3), 233–239. Web.
Oyake, K., Sue, K., Sumiya, M., & Tanaka, S. (2023). Physical therapists use different motivational strategies for stroke rehabilitation tailored to an individual’s condition: A qualitative study. Physical Therapy. Web.
O’Sullivan, S. B., Schmitz, T. J., & Fulk, G. (2019). Physical rehabilitation. FA Davis.