Chronic Diseases: Breast Cancer

Chronic Diseases: Breast Cancer
Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Title
Professor's Name
Submission Date
Breast Cancer
Chronic diseases are conditions that last more than a year and often need continuous medical attention to limit the effects on the body ("About Chronic Diseases | CDC," n.d.). Examples include heart diseases, diabetes, and all forms of cancer, among others. They are among the leading causes of death in the world. The cause of chronic diseases is several but mostly includes risk behaviors like tobacco abuse and exposure to secondhand smoke, alcohol abuse, and poor diet. In the United States, the country spends an average of $3.5 trillion in healthcare care costs for chronic diseases ("About Chronic Diseases | CDC," n.d.). This paper explores breast cancer impacts on patients and their families and strategies to use as a registered nurse in supporting such patients and their families.
Breast cancer patients go through a lot of trauma. Depending on the stage, chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery is among the treatments for this chronic disease (Alexander et al., 2019). All these treatment methods leave the patient in a bad state of mind because of trauma. It becomes challenging for the patients to adjust from their routine psychosocial life into their new lives. My patient is still very young. Thirty years is the productive age where a person works hard to bring up a family and enjoy life's fruits. She is worried because the disease is about to take all that away from her.
When a patient cannot accept their new self after the positive diagnosis of a chronic condition, most of them opt to self-isolate from other people (Ng et., 2015) hence altering their social life status. For example, my patient is afraid of her public image. She does not know how the students and other people would treat her when they learn of her terminal illness. The most challenging task is the patient adjusting to their new selves, which may sometimes lead to suicide. However, Lee et al. (2017) note that most patients with chronic diseases involving their families in their battle with the illness provide significant support.
Another impact of chronic diseases like breast cancer is that it aff...