6.0 -

Summary of Learning
Psychology

The School of Health Sciences, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore

Chapter curated and authored by:
yasmeen_SHARIFF@np.edu.sg
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Part 1 The psychology of care in practice.

In this final chapter we will apply psychology to the most common aspect of the care-giving role. We have already established that psychology is an essential element in health and illness, and in each of the previous chapters we have sought to link psychology and nursing. Now we are going to look at day-to-day nursing activities and the ways in which psychology may help increase their effectiveness.

Humanistic, behavioural, cognitive and positive psychology principles of care

Whenever your care efforts are focused on making a person feel better, you must likely emphasise compassion, good listening and other aspects of humanistic approach. When trying to affect a patient's thinking you will be using cognitive principles such as persuasion and providing information. When your care is focused on affecting behavioural aspects you will consider behavioural principles such as encouragement or modeling. Positive psychology

This interactive principle is essential to understanding how you use psychology as a nurse and how you may shift focus between these three approaches or use them in tandem.

Humanistic Care: Affecting patient's feelings

Humanistic principles are the basis of all core values in nursing and specifically of person-centered care. Humanistic principles accentuate providing emotional support. So, for instance if you deal with a crying patient you will directly try to affect the patient's emotions that cause the crying - such as fear, sadness or anxiety. You will do your best to show empathy and listen to the patient. It is likely this support and the opportunity to express feelings will relieve anguish. The humanistic approach is effective in showing empathy, listening well, and being respectful, mirroring feelings, and avoiding dehumanizing patients (inadvertently). There are countless ways in which we can do it right and there are ways in which we can do it wrong.

Operating consistently in a humanising way sounds straightforward enough but, as you can see in the above table. Avoiding these is important, but we need to do more. Because patients are vulnerable and excluded from much of family, work and community support, we will need to compensate for their loss of control, belonging and self-esteem. In short, nurses need to be prepared to re-humanise, especially when people are in long-term care.

Behavioural aspects of care: Affecting patients' activities

As a nurse you are highly likely to incorporate elements of the behavioral perspective in all situations in which active engagement by the patient is required, in changing behavior or learning new behaviors. At the core of the behavioral approach is also the realization that stimuli in the environment prompt emotional responses, and that such responses can become conditioned. Think of white-coat phobia, fear of blood, traumatic stress responses and other forms of conditioned anxieties and sensitivities. The behavioral approach makes use of reinforcement (reward or encouragement) of healthy behaviors and discouragement of dangerous or unhealthy actions.

Cognitive factors of care: Affecting patients' activities

Cognitive factors play an important tole in how patients experience their illness. The cognitive approach to care addresses the way in which your patients think about undergoing surgery, disability, pain and the impact of the crises on their lives.

Patients who have adopted rational and positive ways of thinking about their illness are likely to suffer less than those who are dominated by negative or irrational thoughts. Taking patient's thinking into account includes understanding cognitive strengths and limitations.