Question

This assignment is a focused exam with a patient who presents with COPD. You will conduct an interview Debbie O’Connor using therapeutic communication to determine the appropriate pharmacological therapy for her condition. After the exam, you will select the most appropriate medication for Ms. O’Connor and educate her on her medication and disease management. If applicable, you will write a prescription for the selected medication.On average, this assignment will take 75 minutes to complete. This assignment includes subjective data collection around sensitive topics such as miscarriage.

Answer 1

In this question, we are not given specific information about the patient, Debbie O'Connor. The only thing that we know about her is that she presents COPD. Therefore, what we can do is focus on this and talk about the most common treatment for this condition.

COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This is a chronic inflammatory lung disease which can cause obstructed airflow from the lungs. Some of the symptoms include difficulty breathing, cough, mucus production and wheezing. This disease is strongly associated with smokers.

Treatment centers on quitting smoking. This usually brings significant relief to patients. However, certain medications can also be used. Doctors will use medications such as bronchodilators, inhaled steroids, combination inhalers, oral steroids, phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitors, theophylline and various antibiotics.