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Biopsychosocial Perspective

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A biopsychosocial perspective emphasises the interaction between biological processes, psychological and social influences (Engel, 1977 cited Morrison and Bennett, 2016). This essay focus’s on a patient who the author encountered on placement and how their condition affects them from a biopsychosocial perspective. It will look further into the term biopsychosocial, analysing the 3 areas separately and the impact they have. The author will also briefly reflect on this experience and how it will help improve their future practice. In order to protect the patients, the pseudonym ‘John’ will be used when referring to him. This is important as patient confidentiality is a legal obligation set out in the NMC’s, The Code (2015) and all NHS employment …show more content…

Uncertainty was one of the emotions John was dealing with and is considered one of the major concerns for people with chronic diseases (Bailey et al, 2009). Mishel (1981) defined uncertainty as being a psychological state resulting from an individual's inability to form a cognitive schema. John was unable to affect or predict the outcome of his future and this causing him a great amount of uncertainty. (Bailey et al, 2009). Fear and anxiety were other emotions which contributed to John’s emotional state. John had researched his condition, understanding he was in the end stages of liver disease and patients who presented with ascites due to PH usually died within 2 years (Sargent, 2010). These feelings have increased his stress levels and heighten emotional stress; specifically fear and anxiety significantly decreases hepatic blood flow which could exacerbate his condition (Chide, Sudo and Kubo, 2006). Motivation is the process that gets individuals to start an activity which could aid in their recovery and to persist with it (Sarafino and Smith, 2012). Motivated to beat this condition John had quit drinking alcohol and made dramatic changes to his diet, adding supplements which not only helped lose weight but helped to replace vitamins he’d become deficient in, such as …show more content…

It's a way of looking at yourself and your practice objectively; a way to learn and develop as a professional (Siviter, 2013). I met John on my first placement which was my very first experience of health care. I was very nervous when caring for John, having never working in health care before and knowing very little about John’s condition I was concerned about causing more damage. I spent time talking to him, learning about his experiences and the best way I could help. Doing extra research to learn as much as I could about cirrhosis; the symptoms, causes and treatments. John accepted the physical symptoms he was experiencing and learnt to cope, it was the psychological and social impact which he struggled with. I found this strange, believing it would be more the other way round but also not truly understand how an illness could affect you socially. The biopsychosocial elements are all connected and each can affect the others in many different ways. To successfully care and treat a patient it is important to consider all aspects and how they interact. My time spent with John taught me the importance of looking at the patient from a holistic pointing of view; looking at them as a whole person and this is what I will take with me as I continue my

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