Chronis Illness Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chronis Illness - Assignment Example Chronic illnesses Chronic illnesses refer to medical conditions or health problems with associated symptoms or disabilities that require long-term management usually three months or more (Brunner & Smeltzer, 2009). Chronic illnesses may also refer to illnesses that have extended or prolonged course that are unlikely to be resolved immediately and that cure may be absent or rare. Currently, the term chronic illness is gradually fading and it being replaced by the term living with a long-term condition. The import of this approach is to eliminate or reduce emphasis on the disease rather than the person. The magnitude of chronic diseases has been defined and based on the length of illnesses, recurrence, resistance to cure and severity (Power and Orto 2004). The major causes and factors that led to the increased number of people with chronic conditions include decrease in mortality from infectious diseases, lifestyle factors, longer lifespan because of advancement in medicine and improve d screening and diagnostic procedures (Ackley & Gail, 2000). Lifestyle habits such as smoking and sedentary lifestyles have contributed to the rise and risk of chronic illnesses and problems such as respiratory diseases, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity among others. Characteristics of chronic illnesses Chronic illnesses characteristic revolves around the lives of the patients and their families and its management. Chronic illness management often goes beyond the treatment of medical problems and it goes further to address other related psychological and social problems. This is because living with chronic illness and any disability has the potentially of affecting, changing and altering the identity, roles, body image and lifestyle of people (Carrier, 2009). As a result, these changes and alteration need to be managed to enable people living with chronic illnesses to continuously adapt and for them to be accommodated in the society. Another characteristics of chro nic illness is that is develops in different phases over the life span of a person. The phases may include acute periods, stable and unstable periods, flares, and remissions and each phase is normally associated with its inherent physical, psychological and social problems that need various regimens and management (Brunner & Smeltzer, 2009). Successful management of chronic illnesses requires persistent and consistent adherence to therapeutic regimes as failure or any slight deviation from the treatment may increase the risk of patients for developing other complications and it may increase the development process of the disease (Larsen, 2011). Chronic illness may lead to the development other chronic illnesses or conditions hence contributing to high risk of morbidity and mortality among patients. Chronic illness is uncertain and its management is a process of discovery that involves the collaboration of various healthcare professionals who work together with the patient and their families in the provision of various services (Nolte, Knai, & McKee, 2008). Chronic illness management is an expensive and costly as patients often incur a lot of expenses that are related to costs for hospital stays, diagnostic tests, equipment, medications and supportive services. The cost problem is further exacerbated by the fact that most living with chron

SLP 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

SLP 4 - Essay Example The concept of skills gaping is also important in the organization in that it helps the management to identify the tasks that require a variety of skills. Skill variety is known as the degree to which the job involves many different work activities or requires several skills and talents (Jackson & Schuler, 2000). The management may be in a position to fine tune the skills of the employees in order to improve their competencies. This also helps the management to identify the gap in the required skills among the employees that may need to be filled. On the other hand, this process also helps the management to recruit the right people with the right skills for certain tasks in the organization. The performance of the organization as a whole is improved if the workers have the requisite skills to perform a variety of tasks. During my course of work, I have seen this process used. I worked in the marketing department during my previous employment and I have realised that there are a number of skills required by different people in order for them to perform different work tasks. For instance, people with good verbal communication skills were assigned tasks that mainly dealt with customer issues. These people would deal directly with the customers and other stakeholders. On the other hand, people who had good technical skills such as computer knowledge were given tasks such as customer database maintenance and management. These people were also responsible for computing data obtained from online marketing research carried in the company. In order to apply this process in the work environment, it is important to identify the skills possessed by the employees and the skills needed to perform different tasks in the organization. This helps the responsible authorities to assign people with the right skills to perform certain tasks in the organisation. This also helps to minimise