|
LUPUS:
A Patient Care Guide for Nurses and Other Health Professionals
is an update of Lupus Erythematosus: Handbook for Nurses
by
Terri Nass, RN, which provided health care professionals
with a comprehensive and detailed review of lupus. The
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and
Skin Diseases (NIAMS) is pleased to have had the opportunity
to update the Handbook with the gracious permission
of Ms. Nass.
Lupus erythematosus
is a complex and challenging disease that affects the
lives of many thousands of individuals and their families.
It is multidimensional, with physical, emotional, and
psychosocial aspects that require, in turn, multidimensional
and patient-centered treatment and support strategies.
This comprehensive guide brings together information on
a wide variety of issues that health professionals need
to know about in order to provide those treatment and
support strategies for their patients with lupus. The
guide covers general background on lupus, new advances
in research, laboratory tests used to diagnose and evaluate
lupus, care of the lupus patient, medications used to
treat lupus, psychosocial aspects of lupus, and patient
education and information.
A key element
of the guide is that it contains information useful to
the whole patient care team: nurses, physicians, physical
and occupational therapists, social workers, and patients
themselves.
Many people
worked on this revision to incorporate the immense knowledge
obtained over recent years on lupus and its management
and to create a reader-friendly and useful book. We wish
to thank all those who have played a role in bringing
this guide to fruition, in particular the Task Force on
Lupus in High Risk Populations, which was led for a time
by Lawrence E. Shulman, MD, PhD, the founding director
of NIAMS, and which contributed much to ensuring that
lupus remains in the public eye and on the research docket.
In addition, we thank Constance Raab and Barbara Weldon
in the NIAMS Office of Communications and Public Liaison
(OCPL) for supporting the update of this guide, and Ann
Taubenheim of Cygnus Corporation for directing the project.
Jacquelyn Jones-Gibson, RN, BSN, identified areas to update,
and Julia Freeman, PhD, and Anne Brown Rodgers edited
the manuscript. Phyllis Payne, MPH, wrote, Chapter
2, Advances in Lupus Research, and Carolyn M.
Albright, MS, RN, wrote, Chapter
5, Medications Used To Treat Lupus, and Chapter
7, Patient Information. Ann Taubenheim and Carolyn
Albright significantly revised, Chapter
4, Care of the Lupus Patient. Carolyn H. McGrory,
MS, RN, Roberta Horton, MSW, ACSW, and Anne Brown Rodgers
contributed to the revision of, Chapter
6, Psychosocial Aspects of Lupus. Melanie C. Bacon,
MPH, RN, thoroughly reviewed the material on nutritional
considerations in the treatment of lupus.
We would also
like to thank the reviewers for their careful study of
the manuscript and their constructive suggestions for
ensuring its accuracy and comprehensiveness. In addition
to the reviewers named, more than a dozen members of the
National Black Nurses Association read the manuscript.
We appreciate their comments and ideas.
We also appreciate
the National Institute of Nursing Research, NIH, for their
comments on and support of the Lupus Guide. We thank the
NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health and Office
of Research on Minority Health for having participated
in the lupus task force and for their generous support
of the Lupus Guide and of our work in lupus and
other research areas of mutual interest. We appreciate
the active role of the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA)
in the task force. We would like to thank the SLE Foundation,
Inc., for helping to subsidize the printing of the guide.
Printing was managed by Janet Howard, OCPL, NIAMS.
We hope that
nurses and other health professionals across the country
will find this new guide informative and useful as they
work with people with lupus and their families.
|
|
.gif)
Lupus