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Breathlessness: Impacts, Interventions and Outcomes Essay

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It is suggested by Henderson (1998) that breathlessness in the UK today is a common and complex subjective set of symptoms. A vast range of medical and lifestyle choices cause and exacerbate breathlessness, which can be a frightening and sometimes a painful experience for the patient. A nurses interaction with a patient can help alleviate and reduce these episodes and make a substantial difference to patients both in the community and hospital setting. For many people, becoming breathless after normal exertion is nothing to be concerned about as commented on by Madge and Esmond (2001) and is the expected physiological response to increased activity. However for those who become breathless after minimal exercise or simple daily …show more content…

The biggest shift is the use of the model rather than its development, as the model was created for the education purpose of nursing students rather than nurses in practice. The Activities of Daily Living have been refined for over 30 by the authors and were first published as part of the publication “The Elements of Nursing” in 1980. Today the model is widely used by students and healthcare professionals from different backgrounds including Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Nurses and others. It is useful for health care professions and others when using parts of the model in direct relation to a person’s healthcare needs in an individual area such as breathlessness, and as mentioned previously allows for the start of an evidence based approach to the patients difficulty. As part of the model of living, the activities that make up the model are referred to collectively as the Activities of Living, and describe what everyday activities take place in human life regardless of age, wealth or circumstance. By modelling these activities it is possible to compare different groups and/or individuals and to measure their relative quality of life, well-being and health status. The Activity of living - breathing is possibly one of the

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