Effects of elimination complexities and the role of nurses in supporting the patients psychological and emotional needs
Elimination complexities can by a great extent affect the patient and his or her family following diagnosis with a specific disease. These effects are financial effects, psychological effects, social effects, disruption of leisure time, lack of control, disruption of school and work, and helplessness.
Financial effects: It is expensive to take care of patients. Costs such as employment of care takers, transport to and from the health center, and general treatment are really high.
Lack of control and helplessness: Many patients and their family members show frustration, anger, guilt and a feeling of loss depending in the severity of the disease.
Effects on family relationships: The relationship between the family members, patient, and other relatives may be strained and eventually break due to tension, arguments and loss of trust.
Social impacts: Arises when there is stigmatization by the society against the patient and the family members. Social alienation can lead to stress and depression.
School and work disruption: The normal activities of the patients and their families such as school and are disrupted as they are unable to attend to these activities.
Psychological effects: The mental pressure that patients and their families go through result in undesirable psychological effect. Some even lose hope in their own lives leading to suicides (Morales‐Asencio, J. M., et al (2016).
Nurses play vital role in supporting the patients psychological and emotional needs. The nurses achieve psychological and emotional support through active listening, observation of body language and cues, giving attention to voice changes, intonations, and silence, questioning the patient to assess particular issues and areas of concerns the patient may have, and paying attention to the nurses’ own reactions as they tend to the patients. For example, a nurse taking care of a patient with terminal brain tumor, sits down with the patient listening to the patient’s best music play list. The nurse holds a picture album, taking the patient through her memories with different family members. The patient laughs and giggles at random as she talks to the nurse about what was happening when the pictures were taken. Albeit for a while, the nurse takes care of the emotional and psychological wellbeing of the patient, taking her mind off her terminal disease giving her piece of mind even at her sick bed (Delgado, C., et al (2017).
REFERENCES
Delgado, C., Upton, D., Ranse, K., Furness, T., & Foster, K. (2017). Nurses’ resilience and the emotional labour of nursing work: An integrative review of empirical literature. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 70, 71-88.
Morales‐Asencio, J. M., Martin‐Santos, F. J., Kaknani, S., Morilla‐Herrera, J. C., Cuevas Fernández‐Gallego, M., García‐Mayor, S., … & Morales‐Gil, I. M. (2016). Living with chronicity and complexity: Lessons for redesigning case management from patients’ life stories–A qualitative study. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 22(1), 122-132.