title: Homeostasis 3: nurses as external agents of control in hypothyroidism.
abstract: The role of healthcare practitioners in reversing homeostatic imbalances essentially makes them external agents of homeostatic control-they are replacing the usual assessment, controlling and effector aspects that operate intrinsically in health (homeostasis) but have failed in ill-health (homeostatic imbalances). This article examines the homeostatic imbalance of hypothyroidism, using a case study to draw analogies between the components of homeostatic theory and those of the nursing process. After reading this article, nurses should be able to explain: how the components of homeostasis are associated with health, and how failure of one or more of these components of homeostasis is associated with illness; that illness arises from a cellular, and therefore chemical, homeostatic imbalance; that hypothyroidism is a cellular imbalance of low levels of thyroid hormone, which is identified by signs and symptoms (i.e. other homeostatic imbalances) related to these low levels; and understand how primary care nurses looking after people with hypothyroidism are acting as external agents of homeostatic control.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of East Anglia.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clancy
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McVicar
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006042:Goiter / Q000503:physiopathology; D006706:Homeostasis / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007037:Hypothyroidism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009230:Myxedema / Q000503:physiopathology; D013963:Thyroid Hormones / Q000502:physiology; D013974:Thyroxine / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D013963:Thyroid Hormones; D013974:Thyroxine