Review Of Research Study On Management Of Severe Obstructive Lung Disease

Background of the Study

The Review of the Research Study on the Management of Severe Obstructive Lung Disease.

The health issue under study was the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and its increasing rate among the patients globally. Therefore, the study involves examining the patient’s perception of the knowledge of self-management on severe breathing problems. It also includes the processes of recognizing severe COPD, and self-managing of the breathing difficulties and distressing desires by patients at home with the help of nurses.

The previous research indicates that the patients with progressive COPD were unwilling to take part in therapies and medication process to assist them recover or reduce severe symptoms. The earlier study, on the “Home-based COPD psycho-education: A qualitative study of the patients’” article, indicates that the experiences shows that despite the knowledge of patients about the severity of COPD, patients resist in sharing the health problem experience with the health practitioners.

The relevance in this study is enhancing researchers with rich information about the degree of knowledge the patients with COPD possess in terms of acknowledging and managing the severe obstructive lung disease. The other essentiality of the study is based on the knowledge and importance of COPD treatment and therapy activities at homes, thus reducing the rate of hospitalization.

The purpose of this research was to determine the knowledge of the individuals with severe COPD, and also to determine how the patients get to understand the severity of COPD, the importance of therapies and skill acquiring on managing the distressing symptoms and breathing problems at home.

The qualitative research design was used in this study as described by (Bove, Midtgaard, Kaldan, Overgaard & Lomborg (2017). The method used was the interpretive, descriptive approach whereby, the open-ended questions were used and the data were recorded. The interview was conducted to investigate the level of knowledge of patients to recognizing the severity of COPD and the importance of managing COPD symptoms at home.

The principal aspects of qualitative research design as described by Ormston, Spencer, Barnard & Snape (2014) include; first, examining the existing ideology on the perception of the patient knowledge about the severity of COPD by observing and interpreting the present perception from existing phenomenon. The other principal aspect is that the target of the study involves collecting data by interviewing selected individuals or group of patients with severe COPD. The use of purposeful sampling technique to acquire adequate knowledge on the COPD experience perception of patients interviewed is described as the third characteristic of qualitative research design. The last feature of the qualitative descriptive design involves the use of content and thematic data analysis method to constitute similar findings and reduce confusion.

Overview of the Research Design

The objective of the research was to examine the knowledge of patients with severe COPD and determining the knowledge level of patients on recognizing and managing COPD and stress at home. Therefore, the Ethnography research design added value to the study due to the ability of researchers to observe, interpret and analyze the cultural beliefs of the selected participants. The phenomenological research design helped researchers to critically interview the patients and examine the disease experience of the patient and how they manage the symptoms.

The study population involved individuals and the focused group selected from previous COPD patient records. The research involved patients who were frequently hospitalized and their family members. The patients were identified to have experiences on stress, breathing difficulties and dyspnea (Williams, Hardinge, Ryan & Farmer, 2014).

The inclusion criteria in the study included patients with severe COPD based on the Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) and were ranked as C and D or GOLD II III and IV (Williams et al., 2014). The patients experienced distressing symptoms with varying degrees, had attended the pulmonary recovering program and had used the oxygen machine at home. The exclusion criteria included frequent hospitalization, high symptom burden, ineffective life quality and malfunctioning.

The necessity of identifying the inclusion and exclusion criteria before the recruitment includes, simplifying the process of determining the target population throughout different studies, in order to recruit patients to participate. The other importance includes reducing the cost to be used during the recruitment process and to avoid conducting similar studies in one field. Finally, determining the criteria aids in selecting willing individuals to take part in the study by informing them the benefits of the research.

The purposive sampling technique was used in the study (Bove et al., 2017). The use of purposeful sampling tools was to provide the researchers with appropriate information concerning the study on the severe COPD. The random sampling tool enabled the researchers to select the patients with experience and knowledge on the severe COPD to participate in the study (Ormston et al., 2014). This was generally to gather information from the primary sources concerning the existing health phenomenon. In the study, the purposive sampling technique provides information on examining and developing rehabilitation and therapy activities at home.

The use of purposeful sampling technique met the aim of the study because it provided the researchers with the information-rich on the implementation of home-based therapies and rehabilitation, thus facilitating the self-management process to reduce symptoms of distress and recover from severe COPD.

Sampling

Gathering data entailed the use of semi structured interviews and focus group. This enhanced interviewer-respondent interaction, thus generating bulk information. The interviewed was one-on-one and through phone calls. Data was recorded in audio files aided in capturing of the information details concerning the experience of managing distress symptoms at home. Observation method was used and researchers interpreted the acquired information. Researchers collected data by observing the physical behavior of the patients such as the breathing process (Williams et al., 2014).

The trained interviewers educated and monitored the patient therapeutic behavior at homes. Nurses followed up interviewed patients after 14 days to influence COPD self-management. Nurses created good relationship with the respondents informing them the benefits of the study. The researchers observed the physical behavior of patients such as the breathing difficultness, the causes and frequency of coughing and the body strength, thus enabling the researchers acquire bulk-information.

The use of semi structured interviews fit the aim of the study as it provided the researchers with the ability to gather the rich information from the primary sources as described by Williams et al. (2014). Observations and one-on-one interview aided in identifying the level of understanding the importance of patient self-management activities. The difficulties of self-management process among the patients were figured and the researchers sought ways of improving the implementation of home based rehabilitation and therapies. However, the aim of the study was met since the researchers were able to collect and store primary information, through face-to-face addressing of selected patients.

The importance of the interview and observation methods include: First, the researchers accessed the actual situation of selected individuals. Secondly, the researchers elaborated to the patients the actual meaning of phrases thus appropriate answers were provided. Lastly, observation method enabled researchers to identify the level of knowledge among the participants concerning recognizing and managing severe COPD (Ledikwe et al., 2014). In contrary, according to Sandelowsky, Krakau, Modin, Ställberg & Nager (2017), the structured interviews resulted to poor information since the participants were hindered by breathing difficulties. Observation method was time consuming for researchers had to elaborate the medical terms to patients. Cultural behavior of individuals resulted to collection of unsatisfying data.

The suitable method that the researchers could have used to gather information is the document review (Sandelowsky et al., 2017). The document review includes obtaining more information from the secondary sources. The method could aid researchers to gain detailed information and avoid incurring similar failures with previous researches.

Data Collection

The recorded data in audio files were transcribed as were spoken by the interviewer and the interviewee. The ground theory approach was used to analyze the collected data. Selective coding and memo writing was constituted for the critical analysis by the health researchers (Bove et al., 2017). The grounded theory involves investigation of particular information from primary sources for appropriate analysis. The investigated information was analyzed through the methodological strategies to formulate and implement the theoretical themes concerning the management of severe COPD.

The importance of selecting a suitable method of data analysis, such as open selective coding and memo writing was to facilitate scientific analysis on the COPD research thus generating appropriate themes. The grounded theory method is suitable in this study because it promotes the analysis of general investigated idea in the research. The other significance is conforming legal the scientific investigation.  Grounded theory is of importance since it combines the data gathering and the analysis processes. The theory constitutes the detailed procedures to aid in conducting appropriate research.

The rigor of the selective coding analysis was ensured through consideration of proper analytical process. The awareness of trained researchers influenced the reliability of providing valid themes. Suitable method of recording and transcribing data was appropriate in order to avoid bias and inconveniences during analysis. The accuracy and honest ensured that the analyzed data was preferable and suitable to be applied and used in the future in order to facilitate the home-based self-management activities (Ledikwe et al., 2014).

The results of the study revealed that the development of the home-based rehabilitations and cognitive behavioral therapies improves the self-management processes on symptoms of anxiety thus reducing the rate of hospitalization. The study also indicates that the gained medical knowledge has helped patients with severe COPD identify the health issue, contact the health professionals and finally be able to manage the symptoms of distress. The findings indicates that the caregivers gained adequate knowledge suitable for encouraging and helping the patients during home-based rehabilitation period and self-management.

The patient care plans could use these findings in influence patients and caregivers to recognizing and managing the anxiety symptoms and severe COPD among patients. It is likely that these findings could be used in clinical areas to facilitate the understanding of home based self-management of stress and treatment of severe COPD thus reducing the rate of hospitalization.

References

Bove, D. G., Midtgaard, J., Kaldan, G., Overgaard, D., & Lomborg, K. (2017). Home-based COPD psychoeducation: A qualitative study of the patients’ experiences. Journal of psychosomatic research, 98, 71-77.

Ledikwe, J. H., Grignon, J., Lebelonyane, R., Ludick, S., Matshediso, E., Sento, B. W., … & Semo, B. W. (2014). Improving the quality of health information: a qualitative assessment of data management and reporting systems in Botswana. Health research policy and systems, 12(1), 7.

Ormston, R., Spencer, L., Barnard, M., & Snape, D. (2014). The foundations of qualitative research. Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers, 1-26.

Sandelowsky, H., Krakau, I., Modin, S., Ställberg, B., & Nager, A. (2017). Case Method in COPD education for primary care physicians: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial. Trials, 18(1), 197.

Williams, V., Hardinge, M., Ryan, S., & Farmer, A. (2014). Patients’ experience of identifying and managing exacerbations in COPD: a qualitative study. NPJ primary care respiratory medicine, 24, 14062.