Both the terms mean any disease or condition that lasts for more than six months and can be kept under control through medications.Long term illnesses can sometimes be very stressful to the patient as well as caregivers as these patients require frequent medical attention and care. Examples include -non communicable diseases like diabetes, cancer, heart diseases as well as neurological conditions like Parkinson's disease.

Chronification leads to a loss of life quality; humanistic measures are needed to live in dignity. It should not be a reason to dispair; we have to live with courage.

Patience is the key to relief.

The NHS uses both terms interchangeably. As individuals, do we use them interchangeably, or do we use one for some things and the other for some? Do we tend to use just one? Do we use another term altogether?

Hello Glynis Freeman

I have just seen this discussion (after adding to another of your questions) and would have responded to it if I had known that it was running!

To quote from your question, asking RG members' understanding of "the words 'chronic illness' and 'long-term conditions' "; I probably used the terms fairly interchangeable, but saw the term 'long term conditions' as a heading under which some people's diagnoses fell under, while 'chronic conditions' meant to me - as Munmee Das wrote - lasted for longer than 6 months.

Some of the people who I saw with bladder and bowel problems may not have been on medication, but looking after their symptoms by fluid and dietary advice and other forms of guidance regarding lifestyle. I saw them also as having chronic conditions.

But I don't think I used either term very much; if someone was referred back to me, I simply saw him / her as someone I had seen in the past (had notes for!) and further advised the referral as a familiar face, picking up where we'd left off. After a lot of new referrals, this was a welcome relief if someone had returned to my caseload! And quite often, those re-referred (sometimes re-referred by themselves) were pleased that it was a nurse who they knew.

When I carried out research on 'Living with faecal incontinence' I did a 5 and a 10 year follow-up (on the same people, although sample numbers understandable fell).

'Hope this helps,

Mary

Mary C R Wilson Thank you. Some very interesting points.

Glynis Freeman

Hello! Regarding your response made on the 20 February about another term altogether. I've been retired since 2012, but seem to remember that if there was a re-referral of someone who we'd known in the past ("already known to the service"), he /she was looked on as 'someone known to us', in positive terms. Past records (electronic by the time I left) were added to, as I mentioned, but no-one really spoke - within the service - about the person having a chronic bladder / bowel condition. Only, perhaps, when speaking to GPs about one of their patients, to 'put him or her in the picture' would we use this terminology.

We only used the term 'long-term conditions' to indicate that he / she was known to the appropriate community nurses (if I remember correctly).

Mary