Mid-Range or Situation-Specific Theories
Asthma Case Scenario: Calvin
Calvin Lewis is a 20-year-old African American male who comes to your clinic for the first time complaining of asthma-type symptoms.
Hi, I’m Calvin. I’ve been having a lotta trouble breathing. My chest feels tight and I’ve been wheezing a lot. I have to use my inhaler at least twice a day now.
My grandmother has two cats that seem to make my symptoms worse when I am around them lately. The cats make my eyes and nose watery and itchy. I am thinking I might have developed an allergy to the cats.
I smoke at least half a pack of cigarettes a day but am trying to stop.
I’ve been taking fluticasone spray when I feel really bad. They told me I could take Claritin or loratadine, but I very seldom take it.
I’ve even had to go to the emergency room this year.
Select one mid-range or situation-specific theory that is congruent with the care of Calvin in the media piece on asthma featured.
Identify his current health-related problem areas.
Include rationale of how the selected mid-range theory or SS theory fits based on the problems identified.
Introduce a research source article of your choosing in the discussion that either uses the theory congruent with his care or one to which could easily apply this theory and explain why.
Sample Answer
Asthma Case Scenario: Calvin
The patient, Calvin Lewis, is suffering from various symptoms of Asthma. The patient is experiencing wheezing, tightness of the chest, and regular use of an inhaler which can be associated with severe persistent Asthma. The other problem the patient is experiencing is that he is allergic to cats, causing chronic asthmatic symptoms. The patient is experiencing lifestyle factors such as smoking that are risk factors for developing asthmatic symptoms. Non-adherence to the medication is a problem area that is also contributing to asthmatic persistence. The patient does not use the medications as prescribed and thus the numerous episodes.
The experiences of Calvin can be explained through a mid-range theory, the health belief model theory (HBM), which focuses on individual beliefs in response to risks and severities of health conditions. A person’s behaviors differ in response to health adversities depending on how risky or how severe the health conditions are. Calvin has started to stop smoking because the more he smokes, the more he risks developing asthmatic symptoms. He rushes for the prescribed inhalers and medication care when there is the severity and is reluctant to continue taking the medications for long-term care. According to Hayes-Watson et al. (2019), a person can change the behaviors completely on finding more benefits than the perceived barriers and the confidence in their ability to succeed on the behavioral change. This shows that the more Calvin finds the benefits of changing his lifestyle, adhering to medications, and crossing the barriers, the more he will change towards health and wellbeing.
Sari (2018) conducted a study to examine the factors closely related to asthma control among the adult population using the Health Belief Model. The results of the descriptive study indicated that the control was related to perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived severity, and perceived barriers. The study shows that their perceptions towards the disease highly influence the control of Asthma among adults. The study suggests community healthcare providers’ health promotion activities and education that can trigger behavior change and influence their control behaviors.
References
- Hayes Watson, C., Nuss, H., Celestin, M., Tseng, T. S., Parada, N., Yu, Q., & Moody-Thomas, S. (2019). Health beliefs associated with poor disease self-management in smokers with Asthma and/or COPD: A pilot study. Journal of Asthma, 56(9), 1008-1015.
- Sari, L. A. (2018). THE HEALTH BELIEF MODEL OF ASTHMA CONTROL AMONG ADULT ASTHMATIC PATIENTS IN YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA. Belitung Nursing Journal, 4(5), 469-475. https://doi.org/10.33546/bnj.462
