Kubler-Ross Five Stages Of Chronic Illness

Acknowledging how the patient perceives illness and health, helps in understanding the beliefs and how they relate with preventing

According to Allen et al. (2012), “millions of people with chronic illnesses endure unrelieved pain, uncontrolled physical symptoms and unresolved psychosocial or spiritual problems.” This issue occurs because palliative care is often considered a form of end-of-life care. Palliative care is a treatment that can be used for patients who suffer from chronic illnesses and diseases while receiving curative treatment. (Horowitz, Grambling & Quill, 2014) purposely states the misconceptions of palliative care and advocated for seriously ill patients that education must bring under control the misconceptions. Some patients do not receive appropriate symptom management because the palliative care treatment needed is often confused with end-of-life care. However, end-of-life care attempts to relieve pain and suffering when a disease is no longer responsive to curative treatment. Pain and suffering could ultimately be controlled or even eliminated through the proper utilization of palliative care. Patients who are not referred to palliative care in a timely manner is more likely to have poor quality of life, uncontrolled symptom management and increased amounts of visits to the emergency room during the disease process. Patients with life limiting illnesses bear the burden of increased discomfort and increased suffering. Nurses experience clinical practice issues and difficulties in the clinical setting during the delivery of comfort and symptom management. These issues

History shows that our understanding of health and illness is variable. The way that a society views and interprets an illness deviates from the raw, natural interpretation made by biologists and physicians. It is believed that illness, a social phenomenon, is created out of disease, a biological phenomenon, through social construction. Social construction of illness emphasizes that the meaning of illness develops through interaction in a social context. While the medical model assumes that illness is invariant in time and place, social construction suggests that cultural and social systems shape the meaning and experience of illness. In short, illness has more than just a simple presence in nature. Illness is multifaceted, with a social aspect that exists independent of its medical nature.

Stage 1 involves disbelief that they have been diagnosed with a life-ending disease. They oftentimes become very angry and feel guilty as though they have done something wrong to receive such a diagnosis. Stage 2 involves depression, which usually occurs a few weeks after the diagnosis and typically lasts the duration of the person’s life. Stage 3 is acceptance. Acceptance that they are at the end of their life, and everything as they know it soon will be gone. The love for their child, family, and friends, their goals and aspirations, the experiences that never happened will all soon be stripped away and there is nothing they can do about it. As this numbing realization of death drowns and constantly presents itself to the person suffering, they are constantly reminded that whatever they are currently doing, whether it be going to their child’s soccer game on the weekend, eating their favorite food, doing their favorite hobby, or sleeping next to their loved one at night, could possibly be their last time ever doing so. As this unfolds, do not forget that they are experiencing torturing, blinding, life-taking pain; and all they want is for only a brief moment of tranquility, however the evilness of their disease will not grant it to them. After months of suffering, when the pills stop working, all hope for a miracle is long gone, and they can’t even get out of bed

The results from this study formed three themes which included anticipatory fear for suffering of others, feeling unconnected or connected, and learning from others. (Schellenkens & Jansen, 2015, pg. 1815-1818). What was discovered was that the participants went through a stage where they feared facing other clients dealing with the same disease before the study began. Throughout the study, the participants felt more connected with and supported by other which resulted in learning from each other

This paper explores the emotional differences that people in the health care profession experience when it comes to the death of a patient. It defines the bereavement role, the four tasks of mourning, disenfranchised grief, compassion fatigue and how ambiguity and a lack of social acceptance can lead to decreased quality of patient care. In conclusion, the author offers an opinion of how to better manage the grieving and mourning process of care providers from an industry-wide standpoint.

Living with a disease that paralyzes the body, leaves people with a choice of whether or not to keep living with the pain,

In my opinion Sally seem to be in four of the five of the stages of Kubler-Ross stages of death and dying. The first stage is denial and isolation Sally can’t believe that her son is gone and his stay here on earth was for only six years. Sally also feels that life is over and she has no reason to live. The seconds stage is anger she question herself about living and going on with life without her son. The second stage is bargaining Sally wants God to take her life and bring her son back. Sally is having a hard time knowing that her child has died before she has. Depression is the fourth stage Sally seems to be upset and can’t move pass losing her son. Mike seem to be in stage five of Kubler-Ross stages of death and dying he has already accepted

Dying due to an incurable illness can be devastating With responsibility of caretaking falling chiefly on the patient’s family. While dealing with the normal every day activities that families encounter, becoming a primary caregiver to the terminally ill is an emotional as well as financial burden. The ill person usually lives in the house of a family member, which forces the family to witness the person dying every day. Having to watch a person suffer in your own home is depressing to even the strongest of people and knowing there is nothing that can be done to stop their pain makes things that much worse. Studies have shown that people who receive a terminal illness diagnosis become depressed and develop anxiety. Because of the mood disorders that can

Mishel’s (1988) Uncertainty in Illness theory is a mid-range nursing theory that examines how uncertainty can affect patients. In addition, Mishel’s theory identifies causes of uncertainty that negatively or positively affect the patient. If an individual is spiraling down a known path of illness, they may perceive uncertainty as a benefit. However, illness uncertainty causes breakdowns, fear of the illness, emotional distress, loss of control, and inappropriate coping methods (Mishel 1988). These conditions if left untreated will lead to patients that are unable to form cognitive structures for illness related events, develop improper psychological adjustments, poor decision-making, and traumatic stress responses (Mishel 1988). Along with

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-born psychiatrist who spent two years of her professional career gathering information from terminally ill patients to create the premise for On Death and Dying. “It is not meant to be a textbook on how to manage dying patients, nor is it intended as a complete study of the psychology of dying.” (Kübler-Ross, 1969). This book was written as a call-to-action; to raise awareness of the voice of the dying. Not only is there stigma surrounding the topic, but also numerous misconceptions concerning the emotional journey of the terminally ill. The Kübler-Ross Model creates a framework for those interacting with dying persons, to help caretakers better understand the transitions that are taking place, resulting in higher-quality care. This model is comprised of five stages, which can be experienced in a variety of combinations. Prior to the first stage, the patient must be delivered the news of their illness or the severity of their illness, which usually results in shock. Denial is the first stage noted by Kübler-Ross. Denial and isolation are normal responses to overwhelming emotions and serve as a temporary response until the individual is ready to accept reality. Although this defense mechanism is normative, it is important to note that it isn’t necessarily healthy, and that some never move past this stage. As reality sets in, pain beings to emerge and manifests itself in the next stage: anger. Rationality takes a

Note: This stage is sometimes confused with Resignation, which is when the patient could not care less about her/his ordeal, thinks

Shaw-Stabler has battled systematic lupus for several years, enduring serious side effects, such as kidney failure, along the way. In her narrative, Live with the Wolf and Surviving Lupus, she provides optimistic views to patients struggling with lupus. She does this by encouraging lupus patients to “keep the faith and continue the fight,” (Shaw-Stabler, 2010 14). She goes onto explain that communication with one’s body is key when dealing with a chronic diseases such as lupus. This is because you can only take action once you know what your body is trying to communicate with you. For Shaw-Stabler, she began to listen to her body is 1978. This is when she discovered that she had lupus. The author acknowledges the fact that having lupus is hard; “Too often our disabilities are invisible, and in our culture, if one isn’t missing a limb or an eye or even bleeding visibly, they are not seen as being disabled,” (Shaw-Stabler, 2010 16). This maintains the notion that those with chronic diseases do not fit the sick role clearly. The sick role is defined as social expectations regarding how society should view sick people and how sick people should behave (Class notes: Social Meanings of Illness ppt

In 1969, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross devised a theory that when faced with the prospect of death and the ordeal of dying, patients meet five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. While some patients have displayed all five stages of Dr. Kübler-Ross’ theory, not every patient does, or in her proposed order. In Textbook for Nursing Assistants: A Humanistic Approach to Caregiving, author Pamela J. Carter explains, “Many people work through the first five stages of grief, only to ‘relapse’ and experience some of the earlier stages again.” (Carter, 2016) While Dr. Kübler-Ross has cautioned that her five stages “not be viewed as a fixed sequence,” (Berk, 2014) health care professionals have accepted her theory as

Boris has accepted his diagnosis and although it affects his daily life, he endeavours to behave in ways that promotes his health. Findings by Janowski, Kurpas, Kusz, Mroczek, and Jedynak (2013) showed that patients with high acceptance of illness display high risk-reduction behaviours to reduce the effect of the illness. Boris’s attitudes towards his medication treatment and it’s meaning to his life is synonymous with theses findings. Boris thinks his medication is a wonder-drug and sticking to his treatment plan is imperative to his well-being. Boris thinks it is foolish when people go off their medications without approval from a professional and has low tolerance for people who don’t have respect for the role of medication. As such Boris