Introduction

You are a nurse assessing a 57-year-old female patient, Mia, with a history of a musculoskeletal trauma that has kept her in a wheelchair since she was 10 years old. She has also recently been diagnosed with a seizure disorder that requires the use of a service dog. She has been working closely with her care team to manage her symptoms and improve her quality of life as much as possible. She is looking forward to getting out of the house more and being around friends now that she has a trained service dog that can detect her seizures before they occur.

Regardless of their specialty and practice setting, nurses will inevitably encounter patients with chronic illness, such as Mia. Long-term but often manageable health problems affect large portions of the population despite factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, and geography. For this reason, it is important that all nurses become knowledgeable about chronic illness and are adequately prepared to care for patients with chronic medical conditions.