Chapter I
THE PROBLEM
A contemporary individual of today with an illness will seek medical attention through a medical institution especially if the illness needs supervision, and most of these illnesses are caused by microorganisms. Hospitals, clinics or Barangay Health Centers are institutions wherein they could acquire the health care they need for the promotion of health, prevention of diseases, cure of illnesses and restoration of health.
Barangay Health Centers’ main
priority is the promotion of health of the people living in the area. As for
clinics, their primary concern is the prevention of illness in the community.
The cure and rehabilitation of health and optimum functioning are the primary
concern of hospitals. Hospitals deliver the needed care to the clients that
could not be answered by Clinics and
Hospitals of
In order to win over an enemy is to know the enemy first. As student nurses, we are not only taking care of the ill but also the sick and usually the causes of sickness are minute pathogenic microorganisms, which we call eases. In taking care of the sick, we re exposing ourselves to many health dangers. One of them is acquiring the same disease. We must equip ourselves with the knowledge of that disease. It is important to be armed with proper knowledge and skills in tackling a particular disease to avoid acquiring such while providing nursing care.
In order for nursing students to be effective in the field, they must know the common diseases in a particular area, how many times that disease occurs, how many are affected and how many died because of that disease.
Knowing the leading diseases that caused deaths is essential for nursing students. They should be aware of what to do and how to do the things to be done. Using the knowledge and skills in giving nursing care to an ill client, student nurses are reducing the chances to be infected by the disease and with this, it could save their own lives.
Nursing students and the members of the health team are not only the people who will benefit from the research but also the society. The society will be informed on the top diseases that cause death. With this information, they will be aware and act or do things on how to avoid these death-causing diseases and with this, the chances of the participative society to acquire such diseases are lessened.
It is said that the concept of human life is worthy to the individual. The physical body has often been compared to a machine that needs maintenance for proper functioning. The human body is dependent on its various physical and biochemical components. To maintain proper functioning and productivity, it is said that the physical body must be nurtured and protected, housed and educated and must be brought into the highest form for it to run and endure for a long time.
Mortality speaks the relative death rate, the proportions of death at a particular time and place in a given period of time.
Gains in the health of the population have come largely from public health charges, safety and adequacy of food supply, the provision of safe water, sewage disposal, public safety from biological threats and personal behavior changes including reproductive behavior these are few examples of public health influence that can decline the number of mortality rate.
Pneumonia, tuberculosis and diarrhea/enteritis are leading causes of mortality in the year 2004 - (ANS Adv. Sci 22 (1): 40-51,1999). Nurses contribute to the reduction of communicable diseases through immunization campaigns, improvement of nutritional status, and better hygiene sanitation. Additional factors include improved medications, better housing, innovative emergency, and critical care services.
This study aims to determine the
leading death causing disease in hospital cases w/in
The study aimed to determine the
death-causing diseases based on the hospital cases in General
1.
What are the leading death causing diseases in
2. Who are the affected individuals in terms of their:
2.1. Age
2.2. Gender
3. Which of the death causing diseases has the highest percentage rate based on the hospital cases recorded in the year 2004?
This study was conducted in
The study is limited only to those death causing diseases and the people who died from the said diseases in terms of their age and gender and their complications that are recorded in the major Hospitals in General Santos City in the year 2004.
The study we’ve conducted has a purpose of helping the people to become aware about their health, the importance of being healthy individuals without any signs or symptoms of any complications. This will enhance the knowledge of the researcher regarding the leading disease causing mortality, which may lead to death of an individual. And this would serve as motivation to nursing students especially those who are assigned in the community immersion to conduct health teachings regarding the proper hygiene and sanitation; the avoidance of such diseases requires proper management and prevention. Furthermore, it will serve as an instrument to the public health agencies for further determination of incidence to make a plan regarding the existence of the problem to decrease the rate of mortality in the city.
The following are technical terms that the readers may encounter in the study. The following terms are:
Mortality. Refers to the number of deaths in a given time or place. It is the proportion of deaths to a population.
Disease. Refers to a condition of the living animal plant body or of one of its parts that impairs the performance of a vital function.
Awareness. Refers to having knowledge of something. It implies having special or certain knowledge as from first hand sources.
Hospitals. Refers to a charitable institution for the needy, aged, infirmed or young; an institution on where the sick or injured are given medical or surgical care.
Cause. Refers to something that brings about an effect or a result. Implies to that which has preceded and may therefore in some degree responsible for what follows.
Health. Refers to the general condition of the body.
Illness. Refers to an unhealthy condition of the body or mind.
Death. Refers to a permanent cessation of all vital functions; end of life.
Pneumonia. Refers to an inflammatory condition of the interstitial lung tissue in which fluid and blood cells escape into the alveoli. The disease process begins with infection in the alveolar spaces and as
Hypertension. Refers to an abnormally high blood pressure; over 140 mmHg systolic and/or 90 mmHg diastolic
Sepsis. Refers to the
presence of pathogenic organisms or their toxins in the blood or body tissues.
Neonatal Sepsis. Sepsis occurring within the first year of birth.