Care Plan for Tuberculosis
1. Introduction:
Tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease condition affecting the lungs and is caused by a bacterium named as mycobacterium tuberculosis (WHO, 2009). Apart from the characteristics of the disease to affect the lungs, other parts of the body like nervous system and bones can be affected by the disease condition. This essay is an effort from the author to describe the physical, psychosocial and economic factors that contributes to the development of the Tuberculosis disease. Based on the identification of the afore-said aspects, the author devises a comprehensive care plan for guiding the TB patient through the disease condition and critically analyse the diagnostic, management and care interventions that can lead to effective care for the TB patient. A space is also provided in this essay to explain the different roles of the multidisciplinary team in care of TB patient. The entire discussion in this essay is based on the real-time experience of the author in treating a TB patient in the past.
2. Disease Process and Ethical Considerations:
Before starting the essay, some ethical considerations are made in order to ensure that the rights of the patient are protected. According the codes of practice devised by Nursing and Midwifery Council of England and Wales, the confidentiality of the patient must be protected at all times (NMC, 2013). The use of patient information and disease condition should also not be used without right consent from the patient. Considering the code of practice by NMC, in this essay, the TB patient will always be referred to as Mr. Y. Similarly, the anonymity of the Mr. Y’s family members is also considered while writing this essay.
Mr. Y was admitted in the hospital with complaints of chest pain, chronic cough, weight loss, fever and night sweats. On examination of the previous medical records of Mr Y by chief physician, it can be identified that Mr. Y had already been diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB). Mr. Y is a forty-year-old patient. The patient was taken to the hospital be the family members.
Tuberculosis is a serious disease that can translate from one person to another; however, proper treatment can result in the cure of the disease (Cash, et.al, 2011). Apart from the infection given to the lungs, the TB can affect the functioning of kidney, liver, bone, brain and spleen of the human body. In United Kingdom, before the introduction of antibiotics, TB has been considered as a major health issue in the country (NHS, 2010). Nowadays, a decrease in the incidence of TB can be identified, however, a gradual increase in the incidence was found in ethnic minority communities of United Kingdom. The statistics taken by Department of Health in 2011, shows that there are 8963 cases of TB patients reported in the country, where 6000 of the patients had ethnic origin outside of United Kingdom (Marjanovic, 2011). On taking the statistics from world population, as given by World Health Organization (WHO) in 2011, TB is reported among one-third of the world population (WHO, 2009).
According to medical studies, TB is the main reason behind mortality and morbidity in people. The gradual increase in the prevalence of the disease among the ethnic minorities, as explained in previous paragraph, has raised public concern to the disease condition. More than 1.7 million deaths are reported in 2011 due to the TB disease condition (Migliori, 2012). The disease becomes a matter of serious concern due to the transmission of disease from one person to another. The most common form of transmission of the TB disease is through the respiratory route. Even though, TB can be removed through better medications, the impacts of the TB on the patient is more when it occurs with other disease conditions such as HIV, COPD and others (Williams, et.al, 2009). Therefore, TB is still considered as a serious healthcare issue.
3. Patient History and Physical Examination:
In the