Symptom Management in Patient with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

           Symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the first stage is coughing when patient getting a cold. Other common symptoms are dyspnea and shortness of breath. The intensity increases with the severity of the disease. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease must face with the suffering from the beginning of illness until the end stage of the disease. As nurses play an important role in caring for patient, they should be aware of their abilities to confront or deal with the symptoms. This research is a qualitative research using Phenomenology in order to obtain information related to the experiences of living with symptoms that occur in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Data were collected data from patients who were purposively selected. Result of this research revealed that there were three main issues of symptom management among these patients; 1) Symptoms experiences which included symptom characteristics and symptom assessment, factors and causes of the symptom, and responses to symptoms and attitudes toward illness; 2) symptom management which included dealing with dyspnea and preventing and controlling the symptoms; and 3)  symptom outcomes after symptom management which included consequences when succeeded in dealing with the symptoms such as feeling refreshment to do some housework, and consequences when not succeeded in dealing with the symptoms such as feeling like a family burden. This study shows that patients need to control the symptoms and if the are not able to deal with it they will feel like a burden of the family. Therefore, nurses should encourage patients and their families in coping with the symptoms and promote facilities to help them control it.