Stages of COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) characterizes a progressive and enduring inflammatory lung disease manifested by unremitting cough and shortness of breath (Young et al., 2020). There are four different stages of COPD as listed below.

Stage 1: Mild COPD

This stage is characterized by major symptoms such as continuous cough and shortness of breath, which may be associated with mucus. However, these symptoms may not be experienced at this stage (Young et al., 2020). The treatment of mild COPD includes short-acting bronchodilator medications, which relax muscles along the airways to foster breathing. Treatment also involves smoking cessation and physical activity.

Stage 2: Moderate COPD

This stage is characterized by intensified presented symptoms from stage 1 due to progress in airflow restrictions. Patients experience shortness of breath during exercise. An increase in coughing and the production of mucus may also occur. Other possible symptoms include fatigue

, wheezing, and challenges sleeping. The treatment of moderate COPD involves smoking cessation, bronchodilator medications to foster breathing, and pulmonary rehab to maintain quality of life by working with relevant clinicians to develop a plan customized to the needs of the patient. Other treatment plans include exercise, counseling, and a healthy diet (Young et al., 2020).

Stage 3: Severe COPD

This stage is characterized by a massive decrease in lung function. The continuous weakening of the air sac walls in the lungs creates difficulty in the consumption of oxygen and carbon dioxide elimination. The treatment involves bronchodilator medications to foster breathing, and pulmonary rehab to provide customized advice on exercise and other lifestyle problems. Antibiotics and steroids may also be used frequently to control flare-ups (Halpin et al., 2021).

Stage 4: Very Severe COPD

At this stage, the function of the lung is drastically reduced. The symptoms noticed in stage 3 exacerbate and become more unrelenting. Patients experience chest tightness and shortness of breath with routine activities, and breathing becomes extremely challenging. Treatments involve similar treatments in the initial stages, though with different combinations, and doses, or take them more often. Another possible treatment is surgery in case medications fail to work for the patient (Halpin et al., 2021).

References

Halpin, D. M., Criner, G. J., Papi, A., Singh, D., Anzueto, A., Martinez, F. J., … & Vogelmeier, C. F. (2021). Global initiative for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive lung disease. The 2020 GOLD science committee report on COVID-19 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 203(1), 24-36. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202009-3533SO

Young, A. L., Bragman, F. J., Rangelov, B., Han, M. K., Galbán, C. J., Lynch, D. A., … & Hurst, J. R. (2020). Disease progression modeling in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 201(3), 294-302. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201908-1600OC

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For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

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The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

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Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

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Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

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Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

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Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
Include in-text citations in your response
Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
Follow APA-7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
Follow APA 7th edition
Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
Here are some helpful links
Student paper example
Citing Sources
The Writing Center is a great resource