Understanding changes in health and illness over time is fundamental to establishing and assessing healthcare interventions for individuals, families, and communities. Health is a product of various factors that operate in embedded biological, genetic, behavioral, cultural, social, environmental, economic, and political contexts that vary as an individual move across the lifespan (Svalastog et al., 2018). Individuals experience health as changes over time. The purpose of this paper is to explore the health-illness continuum and its significance in patient care and describe my current health state with regard to the wellness spectrum.
The Health-Illness Continuum
The health-illness continuum is a graphical illustration of a concept proposed by John Travis in 1972. The continuum demonstrates the process of change wherein people go through various health and illness states ranging from excellent health, which fluctuate throughout one’s life, to death (Ali et al., 2018). Travis explained that individuals move back and forth within the continuum day by day. The graphical illustration of the continuum has two arrows pointing in opposite directions and connected at a neutral point. The right arrow moves toward a high level of wellness and equates to an increasing level of health and wellbeing. A high level of wellness is attained in three stages: Awareness, Education, and Growth (Ali et al., 2018). On the other hand, the left arrow moves towards premature death and equates to a gradually declining state of health. Premature death is attained in three stages: Signs, Symptoms, and Disability.
It is important to consider the health-illness continuum in patient care by first understanding the direction a patient is facing on the continuum. The nurse should be aware that a patient heading towards a high level of health and wellness has a positive attitude regardless of their health status (Swan et al., 2019). On the other hand, a patient moving towards premature death has a negative attitude about their health status. Thus the nurse should consider interventions necessary to help move the patient in the left direction towards the positive direction (Swan et al., 2019). In addition, the nurse can identify interventions that will help the client in the right direction to improve their health status further.
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