Coping With Chronic And Serious Health Conditions

Coping mechanisms are used almost as a buffer to provide comfort to an otherwise uncomfortable situation. They act usually as a small dose of normal in a strange situation.

I needed to reduce my stress level if I wanted to get an A in the class. I used two coping strategies to overcome the stress I had. The strategies were emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping. First, I decided to look

It is very important to have strong copying mechanisms and adequate social support to deal with PTSD and other psychology issues. Using emotional and avoidant coping skills, such as denial, mental disengagement, wishful thinking and emotional suppression may not helpful because it can hinder the recovery process. This can even contribute to long term problems for the nurses who experienced a traumatic event. In contrast, problem-focused coping helps the nurses to focus on the causes of stress in

Leventhal et al. did not identify the type of their theory. However, the words and sentences that they mentioned in the CSM can categorize as a middle-range theory. The CSM was proposed to provide the framework for depicting the self-regulation when individuals have to encounter stress caused by an illness and understanding the processes involved in problem-coping. Leventhal et al. described that the CSM consists of three core concepts: representation of illness, coping, and coping appraisal. The relationship between the concepts was presented in the parallel processing system that interact as the individual adapts to each specific situation. These processes lead individuals to seek health care for acute illnesses and manage their illness for chronic conditions. Additionally, the CSM was used as a theoretical framework in research and applied in practice, particularly psychological, behavioral, and nursing fields. The results of study can make possible intervention which would help patients develop valid coping processes. Consequently, The CSM can be classified as a middle-range predictive theory.

Young patients and their families who are diagnosed with childhood cancer have a very difficult time coping with the situation at hand. Due to the overwhelming feeling of uncertainty it is pivotal that all health care members are involved in the promotion of quality of life in the hospital settings and in their home. Nurses especially are given the opportunity with each interaction to help a patient and their families find ways to cope with their diagnosis. The purpose of this article is to discuss how uncertainty decreases coping mechanisms and what interventions are implemented to effectively cope and adapt to their diagnosis.

As established in the National Cancer Institute, “Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide for children and adolescents in America, accounting for more than 91,250 children that lose their lives to this disease” (National Cancer Institute). Cancer is not considered a terminal illness, but more of a chronic illness because of the intense treatment that the individual has to endure. As a result of this treatment the chances of survival for children suffering from pediatric cancer has increased around 80 percent. The increment in the survival rate has made it possible for many parents to not have to go through the acceptance that they are about to lose their child to a terminal illness, but have coping strategies that will make them adapt to the fear of the reoccurrence of that illness. This illness has a great impact on the patient as well as the family because not only do they have to adapt to this illness physically, but also mentally. Research has shown that there are both short term and long term effects that come into effect when the child is both in treatment and also years after the treatment. The type of cancers that these adolescents have to endure range from leukemia, brain tumors and other cancerous tumors that have appeared in recent medical studies. These tumors can either be benignant, an acute case that is non-cancerous or malignant, a cancerous case that will need intense treatment over an extended period of time.While many would say there is more of a

Coping strategies have been shown to have a significant impact on the mental and physical health of various populations (Lehavot, 2012). Two types have coping strategies are commonly discussed: problem focused and emotion focused. Problem-focused coping is action oriented and involves trying to change the stressful situation. Examples of problem focused coping strategies include seeking information, planning, and taking action. Problem focused coping strategies are adaptive and are associated with positive adjustment after stressful events. Emotion focused coping involves changing the emotional aspects of the situation and includes both active and avoidant strategies. Examples of emotional focused coping include focusing on positive aspects of the situation, seeking emotional support from others (active strategies), and mental or behavioral disengagement (an avoidant strategy). Active emotion-focused strategies are generally considered to be adaptive, and avoidant emotion-focused coping strategies maladaptive. However, findings have shown mixed results.

Coping with Pediatric Cancer: Strategies Employed by Children and Their Parents to Manage Cancer-Related Stressors During Treatment has each pediatric participant and caregiver answer three questions. “The first question stating, what was hard for you/your child when you found out about the diagnosis? Second, what was hard for you/ your child during the cancer treatment? Lastly, what things do you do to cope/how do you help your child cope during the cancer and or cancer treatment? (Hildenbrand et al., 2011).” Each question is followed up

While Problem-focused coping is ineffective when an individual cannot exert control over a circumstance or stressor, or cannot make an adjustment to the stressor (Carver, 2011). An example of ineffective problem-focused coping is utilizing problem-solving to manage the stress of the death of a family member. Although problem-solving may assist the individual in finding an effective coping strategy, problem solving is not the most effective coping strategy since the stressor (the death of a loved one) cannot be adjusted or modified.

In the article “Assessing Coping Strategies: A Theoretically Based Approach” by Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub, it states the different types of coping responses for stress. There are three main types: problem-focused coping, emotional-focused coping and “less useful” coping responses. And there are subtypes for each one of them. To figure out what type of coping one uses during stress, one can take a coping questionnaire. I took this questionnaire and found out that the major coping responses I use are two types of emotional-focused coping and one less useful coping response.

According to the test my most prominent coping styles are planning and active coping because they were both the highest scores I got on the coping test. The ways I use to cope are healthy and effective ways to manage stressors because I don’t use them in negative ways. Planning can be positive or negative because you could make a plan of action with negative or positive consequences. Active coping can exhaust you if you concentrate too much effort into handling the stress, but has positive consequences if you take it slow by going one step at a time. My score of mental disengagement was fairly high, but not the highest I scored on within this coping test.

Despite the fact that both theorists targeted goals aim to decrease adverse stressors and unwanted stimuli through interventions that enable a patient to maintain optimal health by means of positive coping and prompt identification of stressor, their means to attain patient’s goal are a somehow dissimilar. Neuman’s system model interventions are targeted towards “primary, secondary, or tertiary prevention” (Hood, 2014, p. 168) with the aim to fortify the person’s lines of defense. Although, Roy’s adaption model interventions are also aimed to improve coping mechanisms and to reduce stressors, they are specific to the improving adaption modes and optimizing adaption levels of the individual due to the combination of stressors such as focal, contextual, and residual (Hood,

Individuals confronted with serious health issues or suffering from chronic illnesses are vulnerable to poor coping adaptations. Franks and Roesch conclude that individuals in a chronic state of disease who perceived their illness in a positive way were more likely to use coping strategies. However, individuals who perceived their illness negatively are engaged in denial and avoidance (Giddens, 2012). In my current clinical setting, majority of Veterans suffer from one or more critical life-threatening and advanced stages of major chronic diseases including cancer. Major chronic diseases, specifically in advanced stage with their associated multi-morbidities require support in self-care health management and incorporation of the measures (e.g.

This essay demonstrates my understanding of the psychological theories and concepts which were discussed in lectures as I have applied this knowledge to the case example. I have employed two psychological topics such as the Humanistic perspective of personality and Stress and Coping theory.

Coping strategies refer to the specific efforts, both behavioral and psychological, that people employ to master, tolerate, reduce or minimize stressful events. There are two general coping strategies which have been distinguished. Problem-focused strategies are efforts to do something active to alleviate stressful circumstances, where as emotion-focused coping strategies involve efforts to regulate the emotional consequences of stressful or potentially stressful events. Typically, people use both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping in their stressful episodes, which suggests that both types of coping are useful for most stressful events (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980).