Reflection on Care of Persons with a Chronic Condition - Essay Example

Reflection on Care of Persons with a Chronic Condition

After reading Joi's story, I have several issues going through my mind concerning her medical condition and the cultural situation she is undergoing. In healthcare service provision, I consider a patient’s family a pivotal component in meeting the person's care requirements if they are unable to support themselves due to the ailment because to improve the wellbeing of the patient, family-centered care, and support are necessary. Otherwise, their health and even that of their caregivers like Joi's grandmother, who already has diabetes and hypertension, will be compromised.

Consequently, the question that comes to my mind is if the family can engage in self-care. Again using the case of Joi's family, situations in families are different, and the factors that determine their ability are socially, culturally, or economically oriented. Furthermore, the patient requires to be understood and treated with respect while ensuring that their health care and support needs are met. Equally, the caregiver must thoroughly understand the patient's medical requirements to give the needed care and support effectively. I think Joi's grandmother is insensitive to the patient’s condition and requires a lot of counseling to try and understand the gravity of not following the medical advice of the Joi's physicians in undertaking the essential transfusion, regardless of their religious background.

Self-care is an enormous task which consists of people managing their chronic ailments and developing coping mechanisms in the best way they can without the intervention of professional health caregivers (Butler et al., 2019). People like Joi, who have a chronic condition, must depend on expert advice to enhance their self-management skills to support themselves adequately. Self-care is more into self-reliance than dependence, and it entails giving the patient self-confidence in their ability to self-care. Another aspect of self-care that I noticed lacks in the case of Joi is health literacy (van der Heide et al., 2018). Getting to process and internalize necessary healthcare information is an integral part of the treatment and healing process. Therefore if they cannot do this, then they definitely cannot take care of themselves. Health literacy enables patients to understand and use health information to make sound decisions. Joi’s family has a deficit in health literacy. Thus their health inequalities continue to exacerbate. Factually as this case will point out, people with low health literacy have poor health outcomes, and they are less likely to adhere to the prescribed care and treatment plans, make less use of preventive care services, and are prone to treatment errors.

I can understand the genuineness in Joi’s granny’s spirited fight to have the grandchild not to undergo the treatment. Several reasons count for this: the parents' social status, their religious background, and their education levels. For instance, the family is Jehovah's Witness adherents. Their religion does not condone conventional medical practices such as blood transfusions, organ transplants, and other organ donations. They consider a non-consensual transfusion a violation of their core values, and the religion has its medical code of practice that gives directives on the treatment of its followers.

Despite this background, the current situation is a scientifically proven medical procedure. This particular case points to a bigger societal problem that faces people who are less empowered and from lower social and economic status. They lack health literacy and are purposed to live and work in degrading conditions, making them exposed to the risk factors of the disease and psychological effects of chronic ailments. The family environment, especially for children, has far-reaching outcomes on their mental and physical wellbeing (Berry et al., 2017). Joi lives a restricted life, and the fact that she is not allowed to interact with the rest of the kids of her age within her living setting even makes her medical condition worse. The only available support figure in the family, her grandmother, also has her own emotional and spiritual challenges, giving the child an adverse childhood experience.

My thoughts about the role of the medical teams handling such cases as Joi are that they are charged with doubling as counselors to such patients, their families, and their caregivers. If they are unable to have a personal conversation with the affected families, they should refer them and facilitate access to reliable resource persons to enhance the process of treatment and healing. Diagnosing a socially related health challenge requires a prescription that involves getting the patients networked with the various support options within the healthcare system and beyond. For instance, the parents of Joi are committed to their jobs at the detriment of their child. I understand their predicament as they must work to provide for the family, and although this is understandable, their child's health should precede other priorities. Help for such families can come through liaison with advocacy groups and labor organizations to mitigate their psychosocial challenges. Besides referral, health care practitioners are in a better position to champion specific patient needs and advocate for them through various social economic and cultural interventions such as arranging for low-cost home-based care services for the patient, nutrition support as well as school and education interventions for kids like Joi (Swietek et al.,2018).

Ultimately from the health care perspective, providers should collaborate to give culturally attentive care to patients. From the story of Joi, several care shortcomings are arising from the family's religious background. Patients have rights to their religious and cultural values, and hospitals are accountable for maintaining these patient rights. More so, the healthcare environment is where the patient's body mind and spirit needs are nourished. Health care professionals are empowered with the skills to adequately respond to these patient needs as they are their first line of intersection in their treatment and healing journey.

As I stated earlier, the patient’s family is central in their recovery journey as they are the ones who can make their loved one make choices that support their care as recommended by the medical personnel. At times, the family becomes an obstacle to patient treatment regimens. They overly involve themselves in making treatment decisions for the patient in a controlling manner instead of supporting them. The health care teams in such situations are often caught in between this struggle. Medical professionals educate the patient's family members about their assistive roles as the patient's representatives by sharing information about the patient's diagnosis and treatment. They also discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the treatment plans with the patient and their family and informs the hospital staff about the patient and their family's take on proposed treatment and endorse treatment decisions for the good of the patient even if the family is not in agreement, like in the case of Joi's grandmother.

After completing this assessment, I have learned that some social cultural and religious beliefs influence the patient's decisions to take treatment regimens. The ultimate decision to collaborate with the medical teams rests with the patient. I also got emotionally moved by the helpless situation of Joi's chronic ailment and treatment hiatus. I strongly feel children's rights to consenting their healing processes is a matter that requires legislation so that they can begin making their own decisions to determine the health options they want to subscribe to (Andermann,2016). My last take is on the role of religion in medicine, and I believe medicine is scientific. In contrast, religion is a spiritual thing, and the two should mutually play their part in nourishing humanity.

I recommend this learning as a teaching tool for communities and broader changes to the legislative framework for medical practice on consent matters involving juveniles.