Talking to terminally ill patients and modal verbs of
probability, possibility, speculation and deduction.
How to talk about hope with terminally ill patients video
Exercises on page 28
Exercises on page 29
Write in teams at least five actions a nurse must do when talking to terminally ill patients and other five about what a nurse mustn't.
What a nurse must
do when talking to terminally ill patients
What a nurse mustn’t do when talking to terminally ill patients
A nurse must use simple language.
A nurse mustn’t
use medical jargon.
Modal verbs
can, could, may, might, must and have to to talk about abilities, speculations,
deductions and obligations; ask for permission, and make requests
Modal
Verb
Function
or use
Example
Can
Present
abilities
I can
speak English.
Present
permission
Can I
go to the loo?
Present
possibility or speculation
My
mother can get back home at any time.
Could
Its
negative couldn’t is used for the opposite sense in the possible cases.
Past
ability
I could
rollerskate when I was 12.
Past Permission
They
could spend what it was allowed according to their budget.
Present
or past possibility
They could
go to the cinema.
Present
request
Could you
bring me a cup of tea?
May
Present
permission
May I
come in?
Present
possibility or speculation
It may
rain today because of the gray clouds.
Might
Present
possibility or speculation
It might
rain today.
Must
Present
probability or deduction.
Studying
nursing must be tough
Present
weak or imposed obligation by the speaker
You
must attend all your English lessons.
Can’t
Present
strong restriction
You can’t
smoke at school.
Present
negative probability or strong deduction.
It can’t
be real what is shown in the Mexican soap operas.
Mustn’t
Present
weak restriction
You
mustn’t use your mobile when the teacher is explaining.
Present
negative probability or weak deduction.
Susan mustn’t
be at home because it’s her work time.
Have to
Present
strong or non-imposed obligation by the speaker.
You
have to attend at least the 80% of the period lessons.
Probability and deduction: They
mean we are sure or certain about something.
Possibility and speculation: They mean we are unsure or uncertain about something.
Collaborative online exercise about the use of the modal verbs can, could, may, and might
Write in teams at least 8 guidelines using the modal verbs when talking to a terminally ill patient who has... before going to a treatment or therapy. Don't forget to include the disease and the treatment or therapy.
What do you think that
is the difference between hospital and hospice?
What is hospice care
video
In accordance with the BMJ (British Medical Journal), traditional
medicine distinguishes between sickness that is curable and sickness that is
incurable. A curable sickness is treated in a hospital with curative care;
while an incurable sickness is treated in a hospice with palliative care. For
example, a curable sickness, such as pneumonia, is treated in a hospital with
antibiotics, fluids, and bed rest; while an incurable sickness, such as
metastatic cancer, is treated in a hospice with pain medicine and
tranquilizers, but no anti-cancer drugs. Curative care is designed to fight
sickness, while palliative care is designed to make patients more comfortable.
This distinction between curative care and palliative care is somewhat
misleading, because both rely on pharmaceuticals, and both ignore the
relationship between diet and health. Regardless of whether a sickness is
curable or incurable, physicians must promote health and not simply treat
symptoms with pharmaceuticals.
The terms illness and sickness are
both generally used as synonyms for disease; however, the
term illness is occasionally used to refer specifically to the
patient's personal experience of his or her disease. In this model, it is
possible for a person to have a disease without being ill (to have an
objectively definable, but asymptomatic, medical condition, such as a
subclinical infection, or to have a clinically apparent physical impairment but
not feel sick or distressed by it), and to be ill without
being diseased (such as when a person perceives a normal
experience as a medical condition, or medicalizes a non-disease situation in
his or her life – for example, a person who feels unwell as a result of
embarrassment, and who interprets those feelings as sickness rather than normal
emotions). Symptoms of illness are often not directly the result of infection,
but a collection of evolved responses – sickness behaviour by the body – that
helps clear infection and promote recovery. Such aspects of illness can include
lethargy, depression, loss of appetite, sleepiness, hyperalgesia, and inability
to concentrate.
The term disease broadly refers to any
condition that impairs the normal functioning of the body. For this reason,
diseases are associated with the dysfunction of the body's normal homeostatic
processes. Commonly, the term is used to refer specifically to infectious
diseases, which are clinically evident diseases that result from the presence
of pathogenic microbial agents, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa,
multicellular organisms, and aberrant proteins known as prions. An infection or
colonization that does not and will not produce clinically evident impairment
of normal functioning, such as the presence of the normal bacteria and yeasts
in the gut, or of a passenger virus is not considered a disease. By
contrast, an infection that is asymptomatic during its incubation period, but
expected to produce symptoms later, is usually considered a disease. Non
infectious diseases are all other diseases, including most forms of cancer,
heart disease, and genetic disease
1.- Acquired disease.-
It is one that began
at some point during one's lifetime, as opposed to disease that was already
present at birth, which is congenital disease. Acquired sounds like
it could mean "caught via contagion", but it simply means acquired
sometime after birth. It also sounds like it could imply secondary disease, but
acquired disease can be primary disease.
2.- Acute disease.- It
is one of a short-term
nature; the term sometimes also connotes a fulminant nature
3.-
Chronic condition or chronic disease.- It is one that persists over time, often
characterized as at least six months but may also include illnesses that are
expected to last for the entirety of one's natural life.
5.- Genetic disease.- It
is caused by one or more genetic mutations. It is often inherited,
but some mutations are random and de novo.
6.-
Hereditary or inherited disease.- It is a type of genetic disease caused by
genetic mutations that are hereditary (and can run in families)
7.-
Iatrogenic disease.-
It is one that is caused by medical intervention, whether as a side effect of a
treatment or as an inadvertent outcome.
8.-
Idiopathic disease.- It has
an unknown cause or source. As medical science has advanced, many diseases with
entirely unknown causes have had some aspects of their sources explained and
therefore shed their idiopathic status. For example, when germs were
discovered, it became known that they were a cause of infection, but particular
germs and diseases had not been linked.
9.-
Incurable disease.- A
disease that cannot be cured. Incurable diseases are not necessarily terminal
illnesses, and sometimes a disease's symptoms can be treated sufficiently for
the disease to have little or no impact on quality of life.
10.-
Primary disease.- It
is a disease that is due to a root cause of illness, as
opposed to secondary disease, which is a sequela, or complication that is caused by the
primary disease. For example, a common cold is a primary disease,
where rhinitis is a possible secondary disease,
or sequela. A doctor must determine what primary disease,
a cold or bacterial infection, is causing a patient's secondary rhinitis when deciding whether or not to
prescribe antibiotics.
11.-
Secondary disease.- It
is a disease that is a sequela or complication of a prior, causal disease,
which is referred to as the primary disease or simply the underlying cause (root cause). For example, a bacterial infection can be
primary, wherein a healthy person is exposed to a bacteria and becomes
infected, or it can be secondary to a primary cause, that predisposes the body
to infection.
12.-
Terminal disease.- A
terminal disease is one that is expected to have the inevitable result of
death. Previously, AIDS was a terminal disease; it is now incurable, but can be
managed indefinitely using medications.
A push intravenous infusion is the direct
injection of medication into a vein through an intravenous line,
needle, or catheter. Manufacturers' instructions must be followed for
preparation and administration of all such medications. The
fluid to be infused and the flow rate are by prescription.
