Rheumatoid Arthritis

Paper Summary:

This paper presents the writer's personal reflection of two articles on rheumatoid arthritis and how these articles relate to her profession as a nurse. The two articles reviewed are "Decreasing Pain and Depression in a Health Promotion Program for People with Rheumatoid Arthritis" by H. Oh and W. Seo and "Benefit-finding among People with Rheumatoid arthritis in Japan" by M. Sato, Y, Yamazaki, M. Sakita, and T.J. Bryce.

From the Paper:

"Living with RA entails psychological and sociological consequences. RA patients may have difficulty in functioning socially, have limited ability to partake with social activities, and may even have sexual dysfunctions. Patients tend to feel incapacitated; this leads to poor outlook and depression. On the other hand, it has been reported that people suffering from a chronic illness have the ability to have a positive outlook in spite of his disability. The article calls this benefit finding (BF). This is further defined as having a positive perception of one's self, change in life priorities, and improved appreciation of life, good interpersonal relationships, and positive behavioral changes. It has been found that increased BF improves one's health psychologically. This study aimed to discover the factors that encourage BF among RA patients in Japan. The study involved 364 persons with RA aged 20 to 59 years and were made to answer questionnaires to assess factors associated with BF. It has been found that patients who have been diagnosed with RA for at least 15 years, were female, had been unemployed, have suffered chronic pain, and did not have a source of emotional support had the highest BF scores. The most common type of BF involved "developing compassion towards others" and "an appreciation of things not previously important." One surprising finding in this study was that only 7.4% of the participants reported having ever received emotional support from medical staff. The study also found that patients with RA that have developed self-care skills that enable them to have higher BF scores. Therefore, living an RA may not have negative consequences, as long as patients are able to adapt to their situation appropriately."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Oh, H., and Seo, W. (2003). "Decreasing pain and depression in a health promotion program for people with rheumatoid arthritis." Journal of Nursing Scholarship,35(2): 127 - 132.
• Sato, M., Yamazaki, Y., Sakita, M., and Bryce, T. J. (2008). "Benefit-finding among people with rheumatoid arthritis in Japan." Nursing and Health Sciences, 10: 51-58.

More papers on Rheumatoid Arthritis:

• Essay # 90568 : "Rheumatoid Arthritis and Alternative Medical Treatments"
• Research Paper # 122826 : "Rheumatoid Arthritis"
• Research Paper # 108209 : "Rheumatoid Arthritis - Its Effect on Daily Living"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: