Kristine Lopez

Project 3: Case Study Analysis

During the pandemic there has been various impacts for the health of college students.

Whether it be physical, mental or emotional affects. As college students, there are many factors

that can affect your health and well-being like personal circumstances, having a good support

system, and access to healthcare resources. Whether it be pre-existing medical conditions, flu

and virus symptoms, or even poor mental and physical health related to academic stress, it’s

important that college students take care of their health and well-being, and have the important

resources they need to stay healthy.

Reading Jose’s story it shows the challenges and resilience associated with being a

student playing sports in school while dealing with a pre-existing medical condition. Since

childhood, Jose has dealt with living day to day with the chronic illness of asthma. Despite the

challenges that he faces, he is determined to lead a normal and active lifestyle. Jose has a passion

for basketball and plays it competitively in his high school. He constantly works out and

practices whenever possible to continue to work on his basketball skills, he puts in so much

effort to make sure he is playing at his best. Jose has been made MVP of his team twice and is

about to be made team captain. Throughout all of this hard work and dedication he has put in for

his basketball success, he also struggles daily with asthma. There are many issues and limitations

that asthma causes for Jose’s daily routine, using an inhaler is second nature for Jose since he

often experiences difficulty breathing and coughing spasms. Sometimes he gets so bad that he

has to go to the emergency, and he has many doctor’s appointments that cause him to miss

school and basketball. Fortunately for Jose he has a great support system, his mother is able to
take him to and from doctor’s appointments whenever it’s needed, and the medical insurance

from his father’s job allows him to get the good medication and inhalers that he needs. Although

Jose‘s condition is problematic, his asthma is also very treatable.

Despite so far having a treatable condition, along with so far affordable healthcare

expenses, there is always a risk for Jose to have a more severe asthma attack which can be life

threatening and require extra medications and other interventions to help him breathe. So far,

Jose and his family have been able to keep his condition relatively managed and controlled,

however, there are other steps and precautions he can take to make sure his asthma is managed

more effectively. Jose can consider seeking advice from other healthcare professionals, such as

pulmonologist and asthma specialists to provide different options for managing and controlling

his asthma attacks as well as preventative measures. The different medications, inhalers, and

breathing treatments taken by Jose, are great to help control his asthma when he’s having

difficulty breathing, but it’s also important to maintain a healthy lifestyle and have an asthma

action plan to help minimize and prevent these asthma attacks. Making sure to get regular check

ups, identifying and avoiding exposure to his asthma triggers such as allergens, pollutants, and

respiratory infections, as well as maintaining a healthy lifestyle with balanced diet and regular

exercise can all support his overall health and well-being.

Jose‘s story makes me think about my nephew who played baseball from T-ball all the

way to his senior year of high school. He also has asthma and had to use an inhaler whenever he

had difficulty breathing. Luckily his asthma wasn’t as severe as Jose’s, he never had to go to the

emergency for an asthma attack but there were plenty of times where he would have difficulty

breathing when playing baseball and would have to use his inhaler or even sit out for a game to

prevent it from getting worse. It was scary to see him have difficulty breathing and sad to see
how it would affect him emotionally when he would have to sit on the bench when the rest of his

team played.

It’s so important for college students to have the right support system and services along

with access medical resources so that they can maintain a healthy lifestyle. Pre-existing medical

conditions, global pandemic, academic related stress, all affect the health and well-being of all

students in general, it’s important that they have easy access to mental and physical health

services. Having the right support system and the right medical care and make a huge difference

for a student dealing with any kind of medical condition.