M.Cur. (Psychiatric Nursing) / A diagnosis of cancer causes certain fears to arise in a patient, as well as among his family, activating intense emotional responses in everyone concerned. Examples of such emotions are anger. self-reproach, gUilt, heartache, helplessness and mourning. An acceptance of the circumstances does not necessarily occur, and the phases of the mourning process may be continually interchanging. As a result of all these emotions experienced by the patient with cancer as well as his family, mental discomfort is likely to occur. The family has to adapt its usual mechanism for handling internal discomfort, in order to include the pressure and demands to which they will be exposed as a result of the cancer and treatment thereof. Family cohesion will not necessarily be advanced as a result of this heightened pressure, and additional pressure may be placed on relationships within the family. Members of a family often find it difficult to discuss openly their fears, worries and feelings. for the simple reason that they are scared of becoming upset themselves, or alternately upsetting the rest of the family. Holding themselves back in this way may lead to a feeling of being isolated, which in turn leads to feelings of uncertainty being experienced. In this way the members of a family may find themselves becoming less and less involved with each other and with the patient's treatment, all as a result of not being able to talk about their fears and other intense emotions and therefore not being able to realise all these feelings. As a result of the family's uncertainty concerning their handling of the situation, they experience a loss of control and a change in their ability to handle their situation. These factors contribute to their experience of mental discomfort. Mental discomfort is not visible to others, therefore it is very rarely treated by the multiprofessional team. If the members of the team notice the existence of such discomfort, they will still emphasise the medical treatment, since they themselves may be uncertain as to any effective treatment for such a family. The registered nurse who is in continuous contact with the patient and his family, therefore has the challenge to support the family who suffers from mental discomfort in order to lessen their suffering and facilitate their striving towards achieving wholeness once more, whether in hospital, at home or in a community centre. There are several methods of interaction available for the treatment of such a family. Mental discomfort can be reduced by psychiatric nursing accompaniment. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the folloWing: the contribution made by psychiatric nursing accompaniment through the medium of a psychiatric nursing specialist, as regards lessening the mental discomfort of the family of a patient being treated in an oncology unit or at home. A further purpose was to set certain guidelines for the registered nurse, concerning her support of the family of a patient in an oncology unit or at home, thereby lessening their mental discomfort. An exploratory, descriptive, contextual study was done on a family with one member who has been diagnosed with cancer, and who received treatment in an oncological unit and at home. This family submitted themselves to psychiatric nursing accompaniment. A purposive, non-selective sample was used and the family had to satisfy certain specific criteria pertaining to mental discomfort...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:10658 |
| Date | 14 April 2014 |
| Creators | Dippenaar, Ilse Louise |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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