Skin Conditions
Student’s Name
Institution of Learning

Introduction The society requires attaining, maintaining, and recovering from disease, ailments accidents. It calls for specialized care from a trained professional. In most of the cases, care givers at home may lack this expertise. It requires people who are trained and specialized, and who understand the medical aspect of the patients’ condition. The best suited group of people that can deal appropriately with these problems are nurses. Nursing is a health care profession and hence, their services are oriented to this direction. In their duty, they give care to all members of societies; both individual and families (Braverman, 1998). Nursing care is understood as being particularly crucial during patients’ recovery from serious illness or injury. Classically, it was thought that people requiring these services were probably people who were bed ridden. The objective of health services delivery is not only to care for bed ridden people but also anybody else that have a condition that is reducing their quality of life. It is known that some diseases significantly reduce the quality of life. Today, the aim of healthcare is to assist any person with any disease, ailment, or any form of suffering to recover and have a joyous and creative life. Another factor that makes a nurse to be specifically suited to their job is because they are trained about community care. They deliver care in the context of the whole community. They are able to reach the society or community and teach or assist them on the best way to care for various people needing care in a society.
Skin Infection One of the many ailments that affect the members of society is the skin infections. These diseases have an exceptionally high potential of disrupting a normal life in and individual. Despite this fact, it is probably the least known about by ordinary members of various communities. To non-professional, all skin conditions are one and inspire such feelings as stigma toward the infected members of the society. Additionally, the affected people do not seek early medical intervention. Others think it could be a normal change in a person’s growth and development until the situation gets worse (Mitchell & Penzer, 2005). Contrary to the above classical understanding, there are many types of skin conditions. Care givers, that is, nurses understand this and other forms of treatment and care that should be given to a patient with each condition to assist them to recover fully. There are various aspects of care that a nurse considers during care delivery. These are sometimes utilized by professional nurses as a checklist to ensure that the care is all inclusive, and the process of recovery is holistic. These aspects include continuity of care, patient education, and evaluation of care. Most of the skin diseases are incurable. Therefore, attention of the care providers aims reducing the severity of the symptoms and helping the patient to live comfortably. This is because some of these diseases occur when a person’s body is undergoing many changes and can increase the stress levels. Such periods when skin disease can cause high level of stress include during teenage or during pregnancy. It is comfortable to state loosely that everyone may visit a health care facility for a skin problem in lifetime once or several times. In the UK, the general practitioners are visited by around fifteen percent of the population complaining of skin problems. These practitioners spend about 10% of their annual time responding to skin challenges.
Psoriasis and Nursing Care Psoriasis is a non-contagious disease that affects a people’s skin. It is found in a class of diseases that are described as immune mediated. It occurs when a person’s body starts sensing the skin cells are foreign cells of disease causing microorganisms hence reacting against them. For this reason, the body responds to this faulty signal by producing more skin cells. The patients’ skin cells in the affected places divide up to 10 times faster and lead to accumulation of dead cells on the surface. The skin of the patient appears to have a red plaque that is covered with white rashes. This disease is particularly acutely irritating and is probably the most frustrating and unpredictable skin disorder. This disorder is also the most inexplicable and continual skin illnesses. Some parts of the body are more affected by this disease than others. These include the scalp, elbows, and knees. Some other parts are affected but on rare instances. They include the soles, the palms, and the feet (Roenigk & Maibach, 1998). Commons symptoms of psoriasis include reddening of the skin with white or silvery scales occurring at the top. These areas can be exceedingly sore and may crack and bleed occasionally. In most cases, the affected patches expand and coalesce forming large and continuous patches. In other instances, this disease may affect the nails where nails become rough, crumbled or even detached from their bed. Another important characteristic of such a nail is that it loses its color. Both the fingernails and the toenails are affected in such cases. Another symptom that health care providers look for in diagnosing psoriasis is crusts, scales or plaques on a person’s scalp. Some patients may experience pain in the joints which swells. This condition is called psoriatic arthritis. However, it is rare, as only 10-30% of people with psoriasis develop this problem. This disease may also occur in other forms such as Erythrodermic psoriasis, Inverse psoriasis, Pustular psoriasis, and Guttate psoriasis. Away from medical care that nurses have to give to patients with psoriasis, more is required. Medically, the nurses give care including assistance with the application of the medicine, monitoring the progress of the patient and advising the patients on the factors that aggravate psoriasis. Nurses also educate patients on how to protect friends, relatives and other members of the community (Smith et al, 2002). Patients having faced stigma and antagonism faced by such people, they become an indispensable resource to the society as they have experienced it firsthand. They have seen how a single look on them initiates talks among people among other forms of stigmatization. Nurses teach patients to become ambassadors of truth. The society mistreats its members through stigmatization because of ignorance. However, due to the intimate relationship of Psoriasis and stress, stigmatized people get even more physical symptoms. Nurses teach the patients to teach the society to reduce such instances. It leads to improvements in society. The information taught to these people can be availed to other community members who become affected.
Psychological and Community Approach to Psoriasis Psoriasis ailment bring about a large psychological impact: nurses find themselves offering help in this direction even to a greater extent than the medical direction. For this reason, the two most crucial aspects that will be explained in this paper regarding to treatment and care for psoriasis are patient education and community care. In most case, nurses find themselves in a situation where the psychological health of the patient is crucial. Some patient feel like their ‘image’ has been dented after they suffer from a psoriasis attack. The nurse has to respond to this by educating the patient on how to deal with these psychological problems. Sometimes, the patient is so psychologically affected that the nurse has to refer the patient for specialized counseling among other interventions. Bearing in mind the wide spread nature of psoriasis nurses come up with a way of assisting the society. One of the activities that a nurse does is to educate the society as any person can be affected. It is an extremely crucial aspect of community care. The challenge that nurses faces is lack of an elaborate system of reaching the society in order to educate them. Most of the nurses begin with a person to person education beginning with the patients. The patients are advised on how to live healthy and boost their self-esteem. Nurses take this opportunity to educate parents and guardians how to handle the case and enhance the recovery of the patient.
Current Trends in Psoriasis Patients’ Care Britain alone has around 8 million people diagnosed with skin illnesses. This has created a need to establish a system of community care as every person is either infected or affected in some way. According to research done by the expert in the University of Sheffield, psychological approach has a direct effect on physical symptoms of psoriasis (Fabian et. al, 2011). Additionally, sessions of meditation, relaxation and other cognitive behavior were found to be particularly effective as an intervention for skin illnesses such as psoriasis, acne, acnezema, and other pigment disorders. In the same research, specialist also studied deeply on the effects of psychological interventions on the skin illnesses. It has led to development of psycodematology. Deborah Mason reorganizes the age old tradition of using psychological procedures to respond to emotional problems of skin illnesses. She also commented on the discovery that such psychological procedures have the capacity to improve the physical symptoms and reduce the severity of the condition. Nurses have all the above information which is tremendously crucial for recovery of people with psoriasis; therefore, they disseminate this information to patients and other members of the public to improve their lives. Nurses educate patients and other members of the community on where they can get more specialized psychological help. In some cases, nurses have tried to organize members of the public into groups which have initiated some sports or even meditation. Other benefits of these sports are they help to deal with behaviors such as scratching. Nurses have that rare opportunity to access the medical records to identify people with a similar problem. Sometimes, they keep a record of people with similar disease and assist them to form a support group. These people share and relate with one another which is hugely crucial for quick recovery. It is an exceptionally crucial service for community care (Papadopoulos & Walker, 2003). The society through various communication and education forums is advised to avoid stressor factors that can cause or aggravate psoriasis. Additionally, the teenagers also receive support to deal with their psychological conditions that accompany development of skin illnesses. During or prior to summer, nurse advise patients and the whole community to protect themselves against excessive exposure to sunshine that can aggravate erythrodermic psoriasis
Myths and Misconceptions Complicating Psoriasis Treatment Another campaign that nurse are carrying out nowadays is clearing misconceptions in peoples mind that have complicated peoples access to specialized care. For example, some people believe that psoriasis is a sign of a curse, due to this they fail to take the medication and the advice seriously. It jeopardizes the process of treatment exceedingly seriously and may even increase stigma; people do not want to get close or in contact with a cursed person. Even when such people should be giving care, they stay away due to unreasonable fear. It becomes the responsibilities of nurses to shed more light on psoriasis. Friends, family, and people living with the affected individuals are educated to provide the necessary support for the patient. Other misconceptions include the belief that psoriasis is caused directly by stress. Medically, it is known that the careless and irresponsible behaviors that people develop during the stress cause psoriasis. Such behavior may include rubbing of hands and face. Stressed people have destructive tendencies of holding onto anything and bringing things in contact with their faces. During care of a patient or other members of the community, the nurses shed more light on these issues so that people can lead a more informed life. It is a method of illnesses prevention in a community, as observation of such basic rules can keep psoriasis at bay, at least for some people for some time (Walji et al, 1994). Some people think that psoriasis will disappear by itself. Therefore, they do not seek any medical health. In some cases, it may disappear, in others it does not; thus, medical help is required. Additionally, it may and leave an individual with extraordinarily large psychological problems that require specialized assistance. In most cases, nurses know specialists who can counsel and help the patient to fully recover. Nurses offer their advice regarding medical care and refer the patient for further counseling and peer support.
Conclusion
The community care for skin problems is supremely crucial as people do not know much about skin care illnesses. Various members of the society are informed and educated as every person can be a victim as psoriasis does not discriminate. Additionally, if some members of the community are affected by such a disease, every other member is affected in some way. Nowadays, the care delivered against psoriasis is structured and tailor made for this reason. Nurses ensure that relatives, friends, and other members of society are well-prepared to care for an individual. Everyone is also trained on how to care for themseves for a healthy community (Camisa, 1994).

References
Braverman, I. M. (1998). Skin signs of systemic disease. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Papadopoulos, L., & Walker, C. (2003). Understanding skin problems: Acne, eczema, psoriasis and related conditions. Chichester, West Sussex, England: Wiley.
Walji, H., Kingston, A., & Natural Medicines Society. (1994). Skin conditions. London: Headway.
Fabian, A., Hofmeyr, G., Matheson, M., Crawley, H., Keyt, J., Kriel, H., Okonedo, S., Entertainment One (Firm). (2011). Skin. Port Washington, NY: Entertainment One.
Roenigk, H. H., & Maibach, H. I. (1998). Psoriasis. New York: M. Dekker.
Smith, C., Barker, J., & Menter, A. (2002). Psoriasis. Oxford: Health Press.
Mitchell, T., & Penzer, R. (2005). Psoriasis. London: Class.
Camisa, C. (1994). Psoriasis. Boston: Blackwell Scientific Publications.