Importance psychology to nursing
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Topic: reflects the importance psychology to nursing.
Solution
Introduction
Nurses carry out a variety of tasks either at their workplace, their homes, and schools or
even in the society in general. The main role of a nurse is to offer patients with the care that they
need to recover quickly from their injuries, wounds or illness. Nurses can interact with patients
from various social backgrounds which permit them to provide better and quality care for the
patient. In their training nurses are often provide with psychology training which gives them the
tools which they need for them to be termed as professional health individuals who can provide
patients with the best care and also effectively identify the health problems that the patient might
be having. Essentially, psychology is a study that mainly involves the human mind and in most
cases, it is concerned with the aspects of the behavior of a person. It is an important aspect that
promotes nursing practices within the sector of health. Aside from that, it is also involved in the
understanding of both verbal and non-verbal communication that mostly deployed by patients
who come to see them seeking medical assistance. In this report, the depth of investigation
reflective in nature will be conducted to understand the importance of psychology in nursing
practice.
Discussion
Nurses carry out our important tasks in caring for a patient; however, there are some
students studying nursing that do not know the reason why it is important to set time aside to
study psychology. The students do not understand there is a very close connection between
psychology and nursing when providing care for patients yet they different fields (Baernholdt &
Mark, 2009). Psychology becomes important since the nurse needs to understand, interact and
learn the patients so that he is in a position to provide the patient with the care that they need.
IMPORTANCE PSYCHOLOGY TO NURSING 4
Furthermore, psychology which a nurse learns is important considering that patients come from
different social background also people cannot act it and behave in the same ways.
Having joined the nursing profession I thought that life would be all good considering the
challenges that I passed through to pass my final examination in college. In college, I specialized
in the field of pain management which deals in dealing with patients who are going through
acute or chronic pain. At first, I thought this was just as easy as any other courses but with time I
realized that this course required sacrifice and ability to handle and accept situations as they
(Eric, 2015). Dealing with very sick patients is not an easy thing as some die in the process of
receiving medication or even at arrival at the hospital and it is not always easy to come into
terms with search unplanned deaths. In the entire period of my study, we had a psychology class
which at first I did not understand why we had to have a psychology class. To my surprise,
psychology is a very important course in nursing and should not be ignored by the students.
The importance of psychology in nursing practice
I believe that patient care is a major element in nursing as one works towards getting a
nursing degree. The patients that are injured or ill may be experiencing various types of emotions
and sometimes they can be difficult to deal with when they are having such emotions. As a
result, as a nurse, I need to understand each type of emotion that the patient has to understand the
best care that the patient needs. A patient, for instance, might be getting easily irritated or may be
depressed because of their health, as nurse it is my duty to understand the situation which the
patient is and instead of criticizing them I am supposed to understand them and help them get
through the depression by providing him with the best care (Bolton, 2001). Besides that, nurses
often work in settings that they are supposed to relate with other professionals to bring to the
patients the best care for patients. The nurse needs to fully understand the behavior as well as the
IMPORTANCE PSYCHOLOGY TO NURSING 5
action of people during some given situations and this is the area where psychology plays an
integral role.
Educational training of psychology for nursing practice
I once had a terrible encounter at a certain hospital I was working as an intern. The patient was
so rude and kept shouting at anyone who came near him he did not like the company of anyone
including his own family this was so difficult to deal with him since it was challenging to give
him medication. It is due to the psychology classes that I had attended I managed to attend to this
patient just like I heard in school the patient was acting in such a way since he was so depressed
about his health. I took the time to treat him while I carefully explained to him that he was going
to recover even though the chronic disease that he was suffering from.
The majority of the nursing programs provide students with psychology courses
sometimes basic courses and some institutions there are specialized courses that deal with patient
psychology which mainly focuses on the mental states of the person injured or ill (West &
Dawson, 2012). In other cases, one can come across nurses that have taken more on than one
course in psychology rather than just depending on one basis training of psychology.
Providing care to the patients
Providing patients with the best care is the responsibility of each nurse it is unethically
wrong for a nurse to fail to understand and meet the needs of a patient. Caring for the sick
patients is also known as bedside manner which involves the way a nurse communicates with a
patient and how the nurse can care for the patient (Hawley, 2000). The manner in which a patient
is cared has a huge impact on the mental state of the patient including the entire sense of well-
being. The fact the patient is sick is also possible that the patient is also feeling disturbed and
IMPORTANCE PSYCHOLOGY TO NURSING 6
therefore the last thing that the patient needs to have is a nurse who cannot understand the
situation in which they are in. during my teenage life I had really serious health issues which
made spend most of the times in a hospital bed.
One day as I was laying in the hospital bed a nurse came to check up on me she was so
rude and when I asked her if there is a possibility of recovering she said a big no in a way that
made all hope in life. In felt so discouraged and disturbed to an extent that my condition
deteriorated (Jenaro et al, 2011). I wondered whether the nurse had gone to psychology class
and if she knew that her reaction worsened my situation. Having enrolled in a nursing school I
now have all answers on the impacts of psychology on nursing practice. Today I believe who has
been to psychology class can provide compassionate care to a patient with a very challenging
situation and also can empathize with the patient unlike the nurse that I encountered. Nurses
who have compassion discover its importance when studying in a psychology class and such a
nurse also understands how disease and illness changes the mental states of the patient.
As a result, psychology classes acts as the solution to learning and understanding of the
patients and also promoting positive thinking among patients even when they are lying on the
hospital bed. The immediate effect is that the patients are more likely to recover quickly and
therefore spend little time in the hospital or any other health facility which they are getting health
care services (McMahon & Fleury, 2012). In addition to that, optimism and positive thinking
have also been identified to be important as they reduce the recovery time of the patient and also
promote a sense of well-being of the patients. As a result, there is no doubt that that providing a
patient with care a little complicated than just giving the patient personal care and medications.
Understanding the patient is also part of providing care for a patient there is no point in just
giving the patient medications yet the patient is going through psychological challenges. In some
IMPORTANCE PSYCHOLOGY TO NURSING 7
cases the patient may heal physically yet be going through depression and that is why a nurse
needs to show the patient maximum care for them to successfully go through the stage of
recovery.
Communication
A professional nurse understands how important communication style and process are in
the nursing practice. Poor handling of information could damage the image and reputation of the
health care facilities as the patients prefer their health information secured and have a right for
the information to either be shared or not be shared. It is psychology class that I learnt that
sometimes the patients prefers to keep their health information a secret either from their spouse,
families or friends. However, when that information is leaked the possibility of the condition of
the patient worsening is high as the patient may undergo psychological pain and this puts their
health situation at risk (Jones, 2010).
In addition to that, there is also the means which the nurse is supposed to communicate
information to the patient irrespective of place and time. Breaking sad news about the patient
condition should also be done in an effective way that will not shock the patient. In most of the
cases, it is advisable that the nurse first ensure that the patient goes through a counseling session
to enable the patient to come into times with the news that he is receiving. As a result, a nurse
needs to learn how to communicate effectively with the patients especially those that are
suffering from chronic diseases. Taking psychology classes provides the nurse with the
information that they need to be able to meet the needs of the patient and provide the patient with
care even during their hardest situations.
Creating an efficient care plan for the patient
IMPORTANCE PSYCHOLOGY TO NURSING 8
A nurse needs to consider a lot of things when deciding the type of medication and
treatment that the patient is going to receive. As a result, it is important to have a plan which
involves considering the physical state and mental condition of the patient. At the hospital where
I was working as an intern I came across one patient who was having a lot of anxiety following a
diagnosis of a chronic disease. The patient after this diagnosis lost a lot of interest activities
which he was doing earlier and even when he went home he refused to walk out of bed. A
patient with such an issue is likely to develop risky habits that increase the level of secondary
infections like pneumonia or even respiratory infections (Johnson et al, 2012).
A nurse ought to have some knowledge and skills in judging whether a patient has
enthusiasm on the care and treatment plan. Furthermore, any suspicion that the sick individual is
not likely to take part the recovery process ought not to trigger with the actions that the nurse is
going to take. Although the patients might have complications in engaging, the nurse should be
in a position to offer the patient with emotional support, encouragements as well as evaluating
the steps that can be undertaken to help the patient accept the treatment plan to the physical
health that they are suffering from (Shea, 2016). As nurse for instance I might set some short
term goals which the patient is going to achieve like walking out the bed early so that the gets
time to walk around the room or out for least 20 minutes.
Providing proper effective assessment
In the evaluation process of the condition of the patient, a nurse is supposed to determine
the severity of the illness which the patient is suffering from, the response of the patient or the
level of pain or discomfort that the patient is having. A nurse is supposed to first identify the
mental and the emotional status of the patient which is also part of the evaluation of the patient.
IMPORTANCE PSYCHOLOGY TO NURSING 9
It is through psychology that a nurse can evaluating the patient real behavior of the patient in
relation to the disease that the patient is having.
There are those patients that are optimistic even when they are very ill or even the
prognoses are very bleak. As a result, the nurse can know which patient is mostly likely to
handle or cope with the symptoms and the pain of the disease (West & Dawson, 2012). There is
another group of patients that are going to respond to the news of their illness with anger or even
hopelessness to an extent of letting out their anger to the staff that is attending to them.
There are also those that become withdrawn from other people and end up having even
more problems with the rest of the people as well. In such a situation I believe that nurse that has
psychological skills will be in a position to define the best way out to assist these types of
patients since they tend to have a lot of challenges in dealing with the symptoms. Most of them
tend to complain from a lot of discomfort unlike other patients who are having similar
conditions.
Improved interaction with the patients
The work of a nurse also involves proper management of patients who have different illness as a
result the nurses must first understand the type of pain that is hurting patient to an extent that
they change their thoughts and attitude to improve their well-being. A nurse who has learn
psychology including skills is more likely to make better decision when interacting with the
patients based on their different gender and age (Kaur, Sambasivan & Kumar, 2013). In most of
the cases young patients and children tend to fear getting adult’s attention which makes it
difficult for them to relax to understand and listen as they are being explained their illness. In
this kind of a situation it is important that a nurse use knowledge and psychology of child
IMPORTANCE PSYCHOLOGY TO NURSING 10
development of young people so that they can easily comprehend their illness (West & Dawson,
2012). Therefore, psychology enables a nurse to build a good relationship with the patients and
the nurse hence the patient is able to communicate and interact openly with the caregiver
enabling the service provider to understand what care the patient needs. With this kind of
interaction the nurse is able to gain the trust of the patients which gives the nurse more time to
understand the patient and how to deal with the patient (Rees, 2013). The patient on other hand
also becomes more responsive when given instructions hence the patient begins taking a positive
responsibility on their own health.
Conclusion
Having looked into the importance of psychology in the nursing practice, my conclusion
is that it is important for any that any aspiring students wishing to be a nurse to enroll for a
psychology course. The psychology skills and knowledge learnt is not just useful for dealing
with patients it also important for the nurses as it helps them to interact with patients.
Psychology therefore provides nurses with a better understanding of why the patients act and
behaves in certain way. The majority of the nursing programs provide students with psychology
courses sometimes basic course and in some institutions there are specialized courses that deal
with patient psychology which mainly focuses on the mental states of the person injured or ill.
Essentially, psychology is a study that mainly involves the human mind and in most of the cases
it is concerned with the aspects of behavior of a person. As an intern I have had several
encounters with patients and in most the situation I have applied the skills and lessons in
psychology. The manner in which a patient is cared has a huge impact on the mental state of the
patient including the entire sense of well-being. A nurse should have some knowledge and skills
in judging whether a patient has enthusiasm on the care and treatment plan. Although the patients
IMPORTANCE PSYCHOLOGY TO NURSING 11
might have complications in engaging, the nurse should be in a position to offer the patient with
emotional support. The nurse should also provide encouragement as well as evaluating the steps
that can be undertaken to help the patient accept the treatment plan to the physical health that
they are suffering from. I cannot deny that dealing with patients is not an easy job however with
psychology many challenges can be simplified.
IMPORTANCE PSYCHOLOGY TO NURSING 12
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