Disease, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention
Disease may be defined as the abnormal state in which part or all of the body is not properly adjusted or is not capable of carrying on all its required functions. There are marked variations in the extent of the disease and in its effect on the person.
In order to treat a disease, the doctor obviously must first determine the nature of the illness –that is, make a diagnosis. A diagnosis is the conclusion drawn from a number of facts put together. The doctor must know the symptoms, which are the changes in body function felt by the patient; and the signs (also called objective symptoms) which the doctor himself can observe. Sometimes a characteristic group of signs (or symptoms) accompanied a given disease. Such a group is called syndrome. Frequently certain laboratory tests are performed and the results evaluated by the physician in making his diagnosis.
Although nurse do not diagnose, they play an extremely valuable role in this process by observing closely for signs, encouraging the patient to talk about himself and his symptoms, and then reporting this information to the doctor. Once the patient’s disorder is known, the doctor prescribes a course of treatment, also referred to as therapy. Many measures in this course of treatment are carried out by the nurse under the physician’s orders.
In recent years physicians, nurses and other health workers have taken on increasing responsibilities in prevention. Throughout most of medical history, the physician’s aim has been to cure a patient of an existing disease. However, the modern concept of prevention seeks to stop disease before it actually happens—to keep people well through the promotion of health. A vast number of organizations exist for this purpose, ranging from the World health Organization (WHO) on an international level down to local private and community health programs. A rapidly growing responsibility of the nursing profession is education individual patients toward the maintenance of total health—physical and mental.
练习：
1.By disease is meant the condition in which one or more parts of the body fail to function properly.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
2.A syndrome refers to a complex of signs and/or symptoms typical of a specific disease.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
3.The diagnostic aids are indispensable in any case for a physician to diagnose a disease.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
4.Because nurses can observe patients closely, they have the authority to deal with any critical condition happening to patients.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
5.Modern medicine attaches much more importance to disease prevention than traditional medicine.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
6.An effective system of disease prevention and treatment has been established in every country all over the would.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
7.Generally speaking, the physician is more willing to treat patients’ physical disease than their mental illness.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
