Illness-Injury-Disease Continuum - Nursing 2025

Illness-Injury-Disease Continuum

• This is a study for the Winter 2025 semester at the University of Doha, for Science and Technology.
• The course covers the concepts of health, illness, and disease, and the relationship between pathophysiology and the nurse's role.
• This topic involves understanding the progression of illness and disease and the nurse's role in helping patients.

Objectives

• CSLO9: Differentiate between health, illness, and disease.
• CSLO10: Explain the connection between pathophysiology and the nursing role.
• CSLO11: Define and characterize acute and chronic illnesses.
• CSLO12: Examine the relationships between these concepts.

Health

• Health is the extent to which an individual or group can meet aspirations, fulfill needs, and adapt to their environment.
• It's a positive concept focused on social and personal resources, as well as physical capacity.

Illness vs. Disease

• Illness: A subjective experience of poor health, encompassing symptoms and suffering. It's how individuals perceive, live with, and respond to their condition. This includes family perspectives.
• Disease: An objective state of poor health, viewed by practitioners from a pathophysiological model.

Relationship between Health, Illness, and Disease

• The diagram shows overlapping circles representing health, illness, and disease.
• Areas where the circles overlap represent points of intersection relating to these concepts.

Health-Illness Continuum

• The continuum illustrates movement between health and illness, encompassing normal health, good health, illness, and high wellness.
• There are stages of health within a spectrum, ranging from well-being to death.

Nurse's Role

• Nurses support patients in identifying their position on this spectrum.
• Nurses guide patients toward improved health.

Pathophysiology

• Pathology: The study of changes in cells, tissues, and organs due to disease.
• Physiology: The study of body function.
• Pathophysiology: The study of the body's response and adaptation to disease, essentially the physiology of altered health.
• Understanding pathophysiology is important in prevention and treatment.

General Model for Pathophysiology

• When a cell faces stressors, it firstly tries to adjust to restore normal function (e.g., adaptable changes).
• If adaptation fails, cell injury and death (e.g., decrease in cell function or death) result.

Cellular Adaptation

• Hypertrophy: Increase in cell mass due to increased functional demands. Examples include muscle hypertrophy from exercise. Pathology examples include liver and heart enlargement due to body toxins and high blood pressure, respectively.
• Atrophy: Decrease in cell size due to reduced functional use. Can be caused by disuse, denervation, ischemia, starvation, and hormonal issues (like reduced growth hormone).
• Hyperplasia: Increase in cell number due to increased physiologic needs (e.g. more red blood cells at higher altitude). Seen also in chronic irritation and conditions like skin lumps or corns.

Cell Injury and Death

• Reversible cell injury: A reversible, temporary state. Examples include water and fat accumulation.
• Irreversible cell injury: A permanent state. Examples include ischemia and toxic injuries
• Necrosis: A form of cell death that happens in organs or tissues while the body is still alive which is often related to cell replacement and tissue regeneration problems.

Reversible Cell Injury

• Cellular Swelling: Fluid accumulation in cells due to hypoxic cell injury (lack of oxygen) and impairment of the Na+/K+ pump is a common example.
• Fatty Change: Intracellular fat accumulation due to metabolic removal failure. Can be associated with conditions like alcohol consumption, obesity, or toxins.

Irreversible Cell Injury

• Necrosis is where cell death occurs within organs or body tissues of a living individual. This disrupts the process of cell regeneration.
• Examples include ischemia or toxic injury, where intracellular contents are released into the bloodstream, and specific enzymes are released signaling the presence of cell death. Blood markers like amylase and troponin indicate cellular damage.

Acute Illness

• Sudden onset, characterized by signs and symptoms directly related to the disease.
• Signs are objective (observable) indicators of a condition.
• Symptoms are subjective (patient reported) feelings of the illness.

Chronic Illness

• Persistent health issues lasting an extended period, often with functional limitations.
• Contributes to morbidity (rates of disease) and mortality (rates of death) in populations.

The Progress of a Disease (Summarizing Table)

• Acute conditions have rapid onset followed by short-term problems. They often resolve with treatment.
• Chronic conditions persist longer, cause permanent disability, require ongoing management, and do not typically resolve fully.

This quiz covers the essential concepts of health, illness, and disease as part of the Nursing course for Winter 2025 at the University of Doha. Students will explore the relationships between these concepts and the nursing role in patient care, focusing on both acute and chronic illnesses. Prepare to differentiate between health, illness, and disease while linking pathophysiology to nursing practices.