Question

The client has received a prescription for a metered-dose inhaler from the care provider. Before the client leaves the clinic, the nurse instructs the client on how to use the inhaler. The nurse is tending to the client's need in which stage of illness behavior?

1) Dependence on others
2) Sick role behavior
3) Seeking professional care
4) Recovery

Answer 1

The nurse instructing the client on the use of the metered-dose inhaler is addressing the sick role behavior stage. This stage involves the responsibilities of the sick person to seek competent help and to follow through with prescribed treatments to get well.

Step-by-step explanation:

The instructing of the client on how to use a metered-dose inhaler by the nurse addresses the sick role behavior. The sick role behavior is an element in the process of being ill that involves understanding the rights and responsibilities of being unwell. Among these responsibilities is seeking technically competent help, which the client has done by consulting a care provider and receiving a prescription. Further, the client is instructed on how to properly manage their condition with an inhaler, which aligns with their responsibility to try to get well, as proposed by Talcott Parsons' concept of the sick role.

The four stages of illness behavior, as characterized in the nursing and health psychology fields, include 1) symptom experience, 2) assumption of the sick role, 3) medical care contact, and 4) dependent patient role. Once a legitimate diagnosis and prescription have been received, the individual may enter the recovery stage, although this can overlap with the dependent patient role. In this scenario, the client receiving instructions on using an inhaler is in the sick role behavior stage, having acknowledged their illness and sought professional care.