Introduction

This case study looks into the Crohn’s disease, its prevalence and treatment, with particular attention to the cultural views that a nurse should understand while working with patients suffering from the disease. Provision of health information as well as promotion of the same is given preference in the study. This study recognizes some issues that should be addressed in the study as; herbal treatment of Crohn’s disease, age, gender, financial implications, possibility of infecting others, importance of health insurance, language barriers, and religious effects on nursing in dealing with patients.
According to Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (2009), Crohn’s disease, which is also referred to as granulomatous colitis and regional enteritis, manifests itself through inflammation of the intestines, and can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract, from mouth to anus, resulting to abdominal pain, diarrhea (sometimes mixed with blood), vomiting and loss of weight. Other symptoms, and which causes interest in this study is the fact that the disease may result in complications outside the gastrointestinal tract, e.g. severe skin rashes, arthritis, and eye inflammations

Threat to the Siblings

In our case study, the 14 year old female is in close contact with the two siblings, as they work together at the restaurant after school, later sleeping together in their small three bedroom apartment. As a nurse, one is supposed to keep note of the fact that Crohn’s disease is an autoimmune disease, whereby the body’s immune system attacks the gastrointestinal tract therefore causing it to be inflamed. More important for the nurse to note is to avoid the two siblings from getting infected, owing to the fact that Richard Riley (2006) illustrates Crohn’s disease as one with evidence of a genetic link, in which putting Aisha together with her siblings puts them at a higher risk of affliction.
Richard Riley (2006), further argues that there is a higher number of cases in industrialized Nations, which makes Pakistani a lesser threat to Aisha’s siblings. However, rate of infection is equal in male and female, thus the gender of the siblings does not matter. A matter of concern is the fact that Aisha and her family sleeps over the restaurant, making one thing clear; they are susceptible to smoke from the restaurant’s kitchen. Smoke is a threat since it puts victims at a higher risk of infection. Also equally as important to note as a nurse is the fact that the disease presents initially in teens and young people in their twenties, with another pick incidence in the fifties and seventies. This means that Aisha’s parents and grandparents are not safe from being affected.

The Exacerbations

Since Aisha’s parents have been actively trying to control exacerbations from the disease using traditional therapy, which have included herbal medicines, there is a sign of willingness to seek the cure for the disease on their part. Inasmuch as that should be appreciated by the nurse to give them moral support, proper advice ought to be given as well, in which they should be made to understand that there currently exists no known surgical or pharmaceutical cure for the disease, leaving options for treatment restricted to controlling symptoms, maintaining remission as well as preventing relapses (Richard Riley 2006).

In that line, the nurse should make it clear to the parents, through Aisha who understands English, and therefore breaks the language barrier, of the risks associated with improper medications, such like the herbal ones being administered. Improper medications could result in several mechanical complications within Aisha’s intestines, including fistulae, obstruction and abscesses. This could be the cause for Aisha’s exacerbations, because obstruction occurs from strictures or adhesions which cause the lumen to become narrow thus blocking the passage of the contents from the intestines. Fistulae might have developed between two loops of Aisha’s bowel, between her bowel and the bladder, between the bowel and her vagina, or between the bowel and her skin. Abscesses are collection of infections in the abdomen, or the perinea area, a combination which could be resulting in exacerbations.