Asthma and stepwise management

Posted: March 20th, 2024

Asthma and stepwise management

Asthma is a respiratory disorder that affects children and adults. Advanced practice nurses often provide treatment to patients with these disorders. Sometimes patients require immediate treatment, making it essential that you recognize and distinguish minor asthma symptoms from serious, life-threatening ones. Since symptoms and attacks are often induced by a trigger, advanced practice nurses must also help patients identify their triggers and recommend appropriate management options. Like many other disorders, there are various approaches to treating and managing care for asthmatic patients depending on individual patient factors.

One method that supports the clinical decision making of drug therapy plans for asthmatic patients is the stepwise approach, which you explore in this Assignment.

To Prepare:

• Reflect on drugs used to treat asthmatic patients, including long-term control and quick relief treatment options for patients. Think about the impact these drugs might have on patients, including adults and children.

• Consider how you might apply the stepwise approach to address the health needs of a patient in your practice.

• Reflect on how stepwise management assists health care providers and patients in gaining and maintaining control of the disease.

The Assignment

Create a 6-slide PowerPoint presentation that can be used in a staff development meeting on presenting different approaches for implementing the stepwise approach for asthma treatment. Be sure to address the following:

• Describe long-term control and quick relief treatment options for the asthma patient from your practice as well as the impact these drugs might have on your patient.

• Explain the stepwise approach to asthma treatment and management for your patient.

• Explain how stepwise management assists health care providers and patients in gaining and maintaining control of the disease. Be specific.

NOTE FROM THE TEACHER

For your Assignment this week, you are creating a staff development presentation regarding the stepwise management of asthma. Of note, grading is exclusively based on the content of the slides (do not include speaker notes). To achieve and maintain control of asthma, a stepwise approach to therapy is recommended, in which the dose and number of medications and frequency of administration are increased as necessary and decreased when possible. As this is a pharmacology course, it is important for you to identify specific medications for each of the steps.

As discussed previously, evidence-based guidelines and recommendations from reputable peer-reviewed journals are fundamental to clinical practice, as they assist providers with clinical decision making. I have attached for your reference below the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) report, which is a collaborative report between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Department of Health and Human Services National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

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Asthma is a condition that makes it hard to breathe sometimes. It happens when the tubes that carry air to your lungs get swollen and tight. You might cough, wheeze, or feel chest pain when you have asthma. Different things can trigger your asthma, like dust, smoke, exercise, or stress. Asthma can be mild or severe, and it can affect your daily life. That’s why you need a good plan to manage your asthma and keep it under control.

One way to manage your asthma is to take medicines that help you breathe better. There are two kinds of medicines for asthma: long-term control and quick relief. Long-term control medicines are taken every day to prevent or lower the swelling in your airways and stop symptoms from happening. They include medicines like steroids, leukotrienes, beta-agonists, and combination inhalers. Quick relief medicines are taken when you need them to ease your symptoms and stop an asthma attack. They include medicines like albuterol, ipratropium, and prednisone.

Another way to manage your asthma is to follow the stepwise approach, which is a guide for changing the type and amount of medicines you take based on how bad and how often your symptoms are. The stepwise approach helps you and your health care provider to find the best way to control your asthma by using the least amount of medicine and avoiding side effects. The stepwise approach has six steps, from step 1 (mild asthma) to step 6 (very bad asthma). Each step has different suggestions for long-term control and quick relief medicines, as well as other things like allergy testing, shots, or seeing a specialist.

The stepwise approach for asthma treatment and management is a helpful way to give you the best care for your asthma. By following the stepwise approach, you and your health care provider can keep track of your symptoms, figure out what triggers your asthma, change your medicines if needed, and prevent problems. The goal of the stepwise approach is to help you have good control of your asthma and live a happy life.

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