Preserving Personhood An Analysis Of Patients With Type...

Preserving Personhood: An Analysis of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Bryan W. Jones Camosun College Preserving Personhood: An Analysis in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes With the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes, the importance of teaching patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes how to manage their disease while maintaining their personhood is vital. Personhood is defined simply as â€Å"the quality or condition of being an individual person† (OED Online, 2016). While the definition may be simple, the idea it encompasses is significant, and is one nurses need to consider. Protecting a patient’s individuality while treating within a standard care model can be challenging. Failing to do so can result in patient non-compliance with their diabetes management, and increase their likelihood of cardiac, vascular, and neurological diseases (Lahiri, 2016, p. 116, Phillips, 2016, pp. 536-537). Individualizing patient teaching, assessing and encouraging healthy eating and exercise habits, and identifying and remediating factors which decrease a patient’s medic ation compliance, can assist in helping patients stay compliant with their treatment while preserving their personhood. Patient Teaching With predictions projecting â€Å"one in three individuals will develop type 2 diabetes by 2050† (Powers et al., 2016, p. 70), the importance of patient teaching to help manage and preserve a good quality of life is paramount. With the nurse being on the front lines when patients are