Emotional Dimensions of Chronic Disease

Question: Describe about the Emotional Dimensions of Chronic Disease? Answer: Introduction: It is the responsibility of a nurse to take proper care of a patient. A patient is mentally weak for their illness. They need a mental support to for healing. The nurse should provide a physical and mental support to a patient. If a patient is diagnosed with a poor prognosis, the patient needs mental support to accept the condition. Because of the sudden diagnosis of a disease a patient is not satisfied with himself/ herself. The patient needs a support from their family or their beloved person (Nursing.msu.edu, 2015). The nurse should give emotional support and physical support to the patient. It is very difficult for a patient to accept the real condition. At that time the mental condition of the patient is very weak. The nurse should play a major role during this critical condition because only a nurse can motivate a patient. There are so many responsibilities for a nurse to make a patient better. Suppose Mr. X is diagnosed with a critical disease. After hearing the condition of his health he is shocked. At that time he needs mental support which is very important to a patient. After the diagnosis the behaviour of patient may change. Always a patient needs a proper medication and a proper care from the doctor and the nurse (Lehto Therrien, 2010). The nurse should have knowledge about the condition of a patient. Communication is very important in career of nursing. Nursing is the profession where the communication is more important because they are needed to communicate with the patient, the family of patient, the co-workers of nurses, supervisors, and many others (Cleve landclinicmeded.com, 2015). Sometimes a long communication takes more time. Nurse patient interaction plays an important role in the health care service. The main factor that may influence in the career of the nurse is the skill and potential of communication with the patients. There are three major components for the successful communications. Those are receiver, sender and a message. The capacity for passing the message in a short period of time is very essential for a nurse. The communication skill of the nurse should high-quality because the families of patients are depended on them. Failure in communication can start negative outcomes (Ghobrial IM, 2015). If any information which is vital is missed by the nurse, the patient could drop in danger. The nurse should know the full condition of the patient. The effective nursing care is the major role for the nurse because a patient and the family of the patient both are totally dependent on the care of nurse. The trust should provid e to the patient and their family. The patients and family of patient should not be ignored ('Case Study - Managing newly diagnosed type-2 diabetes', 2010). For this reason the timing and the process of communication is very crucial between the nurse and the patient. There are few factors which are influencing the faith of the family of the patient. Those are the eye contact of the nurse, body language of the nurse and tone of voice of the nurse. The family of patient does not remember the name of the nurse but they remember the activity of the nurse during the crucial time of the patient. So nurse should be able to handle the difficult situations of the patient with a quality communication with the family of the patients (Just Got Diagnosed - Founded by Gary McClain, PhD, 2015). If a patient is emotional in nature, he will break after the diagnosis of a critical disease. At that time the nurse should take responsibilities for their mental condition. It is noticed that the first week after diagnosis is very difficult for the patient because it is difficult for the patient to accept their poor health condition. After the diagnosis of a disease the motivation of their life is diminished suddenly. The behavioural change is also noticed in the patients. Sometimes a patient will go in a depression for their health condition. This time is very crucial for their life and their family members. It is the responsibility of a nurse to consult with the patient every time intervals and make the patient clear about their physical condition (Jane Turner, 2000). The nurse should advice the patient for their health and motivates them for a better result. The nurse should give them trust about the positive outcomes of their health. In case of poor prognosis of a newly diagnose d patient the nurse should be supportive and non- judgemental. The life decisions and death preparations are made by the patients. Patient education is provided by the nurse. The nurse should offer the support for patients in controlling life events ('Risk and Responsibility', 2015). The nurse should teach a patient about their disease and also gives an idea about the seriousness of the disease. The nurse should not panic in front of the patient because a patient is already mentally weak after hearing the physical condition of him. Patients are not interacting in a proper way ('No worries, no impact? A systematic review of emotional, cognitive, and behavioural responses to the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes', 2015). The reaction of the patient is not productive. It is the responsibility of a nurse to cope the patient emotionally. At that moment patients are depending on the nurse to support emotionally. Newly diagnosed patients are diagnosed with so many emotions. Those are anger, fea r, sadness, relief, shame etc. Nurse should play an important role in assisting a newly diagnosed patient to keeping healthy coping skills. The nurse should display on the emotional aspect of their work. The emotional aspects of their work should increase professional satisfactions by developing and training ('Standards of Clinical Nursing Practice and Role Delineations', 2015). Conclusion: Because of the mental weakness a patient needs a healthcare provider after newly diagnosed disease. The healthcare provider is a nurse. The disease is diagnosed by a doctor and a nurse should take care of the patient after diagnosis. This situation is more difficult for a nurse to help a newly diagnosed patient. Most of the time a patient is not ready to accept the real condition of them. It is the responsibility of a nurse to heal a patient mentally because they need mental support more than the physical support. The patient with newly diagnosed disease is handled carefully because their mental condition is not stable or normal. The nurse should communicate in a short, clear and simple sentence which is easy to understand. It is the responsibility of nurse to tell the patient about everything if the patient wants to know. The nurse should apply technique for keeping the attention of the patients. There are some techniques to capture the attention of patients. Those are eye contact, smiling face, body language gestures etc. References: Jane Turner, B. (2000). Emotional dimensions of chronic disease.Western Journal Of Medicine,172(2), 124. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1070773/ Just Got Diagnosed - Founded by Gary McClain, PhD,. (2015).Healthcare Professionals: Acknowledging Emotional Reactions in Newly-Diagnosed Patients - Just Got Diagnosed - Founded by Gary McClain, PhD. Retrieved 19 March 2015, from https://justgotdiagnosed.com/resources/professionals-acknowledging-emotional-reactions-newly-diagnosed-patients/ No worries, no impact? A systematic review of emotional, cognitive, and behavioural responses to the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. (2015). Retrieved 19 March 2015, from https://selfregulationlab.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Thoolen-et-al-HPR-2008.pdf Nursing.msu.edu,. (2015).Nurses Key in Helping Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patients Overcome Fears - College of Nursing - Michigan State University. Retrieved 19 March 2015, from https://nursing.msu.edu/News%20and%20Events/Archived%20News/Lehto_nurseskeyhelpnewlydiagnosedcancerpatients.htm Case Study - Managing newly diagnosed type-2 diabetes. (2010).Independent Nurse,2010(6). doi:10.12968/indn.2010.4.6.77547 Ghobrial IM, e. (2015).Prognostic model for disease-specific and overall mortality in newl... - PubMed - NCBI.Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 19 March 2015, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16611306 Lehto, R., Therrien, B. (2010). Death Concerns Among Individuals Newly Diagnosed with Lung Cancer.Death Studies,34(10), 931-946. doi:10.1080/07481181003765477 Clevelandclinicmeded.com,. (2015).Coping with Chronic Medical Illness. Retrieved 19 March 2015, from https://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/psychiatry-psychology/coping-with-chronic-medical-illness/Default.htm Risk and Responsibility. (2015). Retrieved 19 March 2015, from https://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/Policy-Advocacy/Positions-and-Resolutions/ANAPositionStatements/Position-Statements-Alphabetically/RiskandResponsibility.pdf Standards of Clinical Nursing Practice and Role Delineations. (2015). Retrieved 19 March 2015, from https://www.sgna.org/Portals/0/Education/Practice%20Guidelines/StandardsClinicalNursingPractice.pdf