Examine the health-illness continuum and discuss why this perspective is important to consider in relation to health and the human experience when caring for patients.

Human Experience Across Health-Illness Continuum

Research the health-illness continuum and its relevance to patient care. In a 750-1,000 word paper, discuss the relevance of the continuum to patient care and present a perspective of your current state of health in relation to the wellness spectrum. Include the following: 1. Examine the health-illness continuum and discuss why this perspective is important to consider in relation to health and the human experience when caring for patients. 2. Explain how understanding the health-illness continuum enables you, as a health care provider, to better promote the value and dignity of individuals or groups and to serve others in ways that promote human flourishing. 3. Reflect on your overall state of health. Discuss what behaviors support or detract from your health and well-being. Explain where you currently fall on the health-illness continuum. 4. Discuss the options and resources available to you to help you move toward wellness on the health-illness spectrum. Describe how these would assist in moving you toward wellness (managing a chronic disease, recovering from an illness, self-actualization, etc.). 5. Please provide an Introduction and Conclusion 6. No abstract is needed 7. References need to be peer-reviewed sources Human Experience Across Health-Illness Continuum

Human Experience Across the Health-Illness Continuum

Introduction

The health status of an individual is not static, and is always in a status of continual change. Individuals move back and forth from health to illness and back to health against. The health-illness continuum moves through five stages: high-level wellness, good health, normal health, illness, and death. The continuum conceptualizes that the health status of an individual will always vary over time. Just as life itself, health similarly goes through a process of continual change as individuals continually adapt to these changes in their lives in order to maintain wellbeing and good health. It is the response and adaptation to these changes, rather than the change itself, that affects an individual’s health. Through an awareness of the health-illness continuum, medical personnel can place the illness and health status of a patient into context thus presenting unique definitions of appropriate care. The continuum heaps in tracking health condition and determining the care intensity required to achieve care objectives (Rodriguez, 2014). The present paper discusses human experience across the health-illness continuum.

1. Examine the health-illness continuum and discuss why this perspective is important to consider in relation to health and the human experience when caring for patients.

Wellness and illness are dynamic processes. As the primary objective of medical personnel is to adjust wellness and illness for the individual patients, then it is not hard to accept that they (medical personnel) would closely monitor health status. This is important for helping to understand the unique aspects of each patient and ensuring that changes with implications for health care are well controlled. In fact, the objective of health care is to achieve high level wellness, and this objective is identified as being at the extreme end of the continuum, with illness and death being at the opposite end of the continuum. At the midline of the continuum is normal health, perceived as a neutral point with no discernible wellness or illness (Lubkin & Larsen, 2014). The health-illness continuum has implications for the treatment paradigm with the understanding that high level wellness and good health are preferable, normal health is not acceptable while illness and death are concerning. The level of treatment urgency increases as the individual patient shifts from normal health to illness and finally death. Successful medical intervention allows an individual to achieve normal health. However, achieving good health and high level wellness requires the active participation of each individual patient through adopting healthy behaviors such as eating healthy and exercising regularly (Wilson & Giddens, 2014).

1. Explain how understanding the health-illness continuum enables you, as a health care provider, to better promote the value and dignity of individuals or groups and to serve others in ways that promote human flourishing.

Health care providers, such as nurses, work in medical services delivery and this offers them a unique vantage point to objectively appreciate the health-illness continuum. They see patients at various stages of illness thus exposing them to an invariable pattern of health. Through using their knowledge that integrates biophysical and physiological sciences, health care providers are able to use a caring, dignified and