Physiologic Response to Disease

No. 9 To recognize the physiologic responses of the body to the disease condition.

By: Maria Corazon Palengleng

Every individual has different response to a certain disease. Different factors affect the body’s response to a certain disease. A simple rise in the temperature will be different to a 60 years old patient and a 5 years old child. Age, as we see is one of the factors. Sex of an individual is also a factor. Males have different structural make up that differ them from their response to a disease. Other factors are environmental that we can usually modify.

In the statement itself, we can categorize it on the nursing assessment phase. Even thought holistic means not only the physical but also sociological and emotional needs, the first thing that we recognize and provide care to is the physical needs. How can a medical team able to provide care to a patient without knowing the strength and weaknesses of the patient’s body on his/her disease.

As a dialysis nurse, patients are assessed and asked about their health status and their body’s response on the previous dialysis upon entry to the unit, to be able to know the appropriate dialysis treatment we will provide during that session.

For our patients usually having ESRD, physical assessment is a requirement for the treatment of their disease. We assess their response from the previous dialysis session to be able to adjust today’s ultrafiltration and other dialysis parameters. If the patient had hypotension as seen to have headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting from the previous treatment, then for today’s session the ultrafiltration would usually be decreased and other parameters would be changed such as sodium of the machine would be increased and dialysis time can be increased. If the patient is having 3 hours dialysis only, then today we can make it to 3 and a half hour or 4 hours. Patients themselves able to recognize their body responses, in collaboration with us, nurses, physical assessment are done so easily. The patient even tells us the differences of the previous session from the other sessions and would even recommend a treatment that they think could make it better for them to handle. Discussion with the medical health care team will be done and finalize today’s treatment. Physical Assessment is a very important task needed for the nurses to comply to have a better treatment to their patients.

On the other that we are taking, N204, Pathophysiology, the first module was on the adaptive and regulatory mechanism. It encloses the body’s response to stressor. It gives us detailed information regarding the body responding to disease. It made me appreciate the beauty of the body on how it could cope with the environment.  Every little thing in our body has different functions that have important role in our life to be able to function well.