Psychological Effects Of The Hospital Environment On Cancer Patients

Environmental factors can have a positive effect on health and well-being, planning for life 's transitions is sometimes possible. Designing care settings and centres for this purpose, Maggie Keswick designed for the transition between hospital and home for people suffering from terminal cancer. The centres prepare people for their transition between life and death. Designed to be a positive, uplifting physical environment offering practical, emotional and social support, the centres offer a place of great psychological

Patient’s stay in the hospital can become a pleasant experience when nurses let them create their healing environment. Billadeau (2013) writes about her experience during her recovery at a skilled-care facility following a surgery to remove a malignant melanoma in her foot. She realized that, “the staff were all kind and wanted her to recover”…and “they commented on the uplifting music, and the nice lavender/lemon smell in our room””. This was a challenging but pleasant experience for her because “I focused on my own healing environment” (Billadeau, 2013).

Healing hospitals focus on patients on a holistic manner. To build this type of care for a healing hospital starts with something as simple as the hospital design. The design of the hospital is very important. Weather there will be a lot of light or not, spacing, and how that space it utilized. “Historically, healthcare

Those two theories are Florence Nightingale’s theory of the important of the environment and Katharine Kolcaba’s theory of comfort. Both of these theories are lacking in the emergency room because of the lack a therapeutic environment for these patients. The goal for most emergency room physician is to keep the patient safe until the patient can be moved to an inpatient pscyharitic unit (Nicks & Manthey, 2012, p. 2). By the physicians having this mentality, it does not allow the patient to start his or her healing process in the emergency room while the patient is boarding waiting for an inpatient bed to become available. With the implementation of both of the nursing theories mentioned above this writer believes that it will change the environment that the patient is in and will teach the physicians to start to treat these patients and in turn, it will provide the patients with the quality care that he or she

In contrast, a physical healing environment is carefully constructed and organized. Employees are trained caregivers who are knowledgeable in interacting with patients and families so as to help them cope with their concerns or grief. The environment, by its design, is a strong means of establishing a spiritual relationship through an engagement of all five senses. By choosing colors appropriately, for example, desired effects in human behavior are promoted and psychological systems established - the color green indicates healing, nurturing and conditional love, a symbol of growth (Stefanidakis, 2001). This is because color has the ability to induce emotional responses such as irritability, cheerfulness, or peacefulness. Further, by creating the interior of the hospital in a manner that resembles, even slightly, a church or a temple, providing religious artifacts, say rosary beads, spirituality can be promoted. A patient’s sense of control over their environment must be kindled (e.g., lighting and temperature) so that stress relief may occur.

The first component speaks of a healing environment. This is an environment that is restful to the patient and the patient‘s family. There are no overhead paging, no sweepers going down the hall at night, promotion of a calming stress free environment for staff and patients to connect with their internal spirituality. The implementation of something as simple as a relaxation garden or massage treatment can go far in helping a patient rejuvenate so that they can move forward.

It is my personal belief that environment plays a considerable role in the patient’s short term and long-term wellbeing. When nurses acknowledge the environment that the patient is interacting in while receiving their care we know this greatly impacts the overall successfulness of the care plan. The patient’s feelings must be

When a patient enters the healthcare setting the primary focus is the process of helping the patient get better. Patient care has emerged into the healing hospital paradigm. This new focus is on patient care and not just the disease process. Healthcare organizations are now recognizing that the latest research demonstrates the benefits of a healing environment. Healthcare providers need to reach people on a personal level. The concept of the healing hospital paradigm research reveals that specific design changes in healthcare

The Environmental Theory by Florence Nightingale defined Nursing as “the act of utilizing the environment of the patient to assist him in his recovery” (Alice Petiprin, 2014). It involves the nurse’s initiative to make environmental settings appropriate to aid in the recovery of the patient’s health. According to Nightingale all external factors are somehow associated with the patient and affects their life physically, mentally, and socially (Alice Petiprin, 2014).

Traditional hospitals using standard medical treatment and Western-educated personnel tend to treat the patient's physical being while ignoring other equally important aspects of the patient and the caregiver. Fortunately, healing hospitals have transformed the concept of healing through the principle of "Radical Love." Recognizing the equal importance of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing for all members of the hospital environment, Radical Love enhances the entire wellbeing of the entire community.

Background: Cancer is one among the life threatening diseases in present days it has biological, psychological and sociological impact on individual’s life. People living with this deadly disease have numerous psychological abnormalities like stress, depression and anxiety. The present study aimed to investigate the levels of anxiety and depression among cancer and non cancer patients. Methods: 80 patients were randomly selected among them 40 were cancer patients and 40 were non cancer patients. The Sinha’s Anxiety scale and Depression scale constructed by Karim & Tiwari was used to measure the anxiety and Depression among patients. For statistical analysis independent sample t-Test was applied. Findings: The results show significant differences between the mean scores of cancer and non cancer patients in respect to anxiety and depression. Conclusion: On the basis of our results we may concluded that cancer patients have higher levels of anxiety and depression than non cancerous patients.

Analyzing the journey of a hospitalized patient is imperative in nursing practice in order to produce holistic, strengths based care (Gottlieb, 2014). When examining the patient and his or her journey, it is crucial for the nurse to explore many factors including the patient’s personal history leading up to admission, the unique and individualized care plan, impacting strengths and gaps within the healthcare system, as well as the factors affecting discharge care and planning. For the purpose of this paper, a patient by the name of Anna will be explored in order to highlight essential aspects associated with providing holistic care.

Patients and family members in medical intensive care units experience pain and anxiety while overcoming illness and disease. Nightingale was one of the first nurses to recognize that the relationship between health and comfort is strong and direct (Peterson & Bredow, 2013, p. 194). Kolcaba’s theory of comfort addresses the need for nurses to provide patients and families with relief, ease, and transcendence to facilitate health-seeking behavior (McEwen & Wills, 2011, p. 234). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Kolcaba’s theory of comfort (CT) using the Synthesized Method described by McEwen and Wills (2011) and to describe how this theory can be applied in practice.

One of the main goals of healthcare facilities is to provide the patients with a “healing environment”. The goal of the healing environment is to remove the patient from all the toxic and hazards to give them time to heal. Three concepts that help creating a stable environment will be explain in this paper. These concepts are the seen environment, the unseen environment, and the storied environment.

Another big difference between this public health facility and other health care facility is the level of professionals and the power dimension between the staff and the residents. In hospitals, clinics, and alternative medicine offices, the professional holds a high power and authority over the patients. In the lodge, the staff members are there to give orientations so that patients and caregivers are aware of the policies and to provide any assistance that the patients would need. The staffs are not health care professionals, they are not physicians, nurses, or other practitioners. They are people who cares and understand the challenges of the cancer treatment journey. There is no clear power imbalance between the volunteers, staffs, and patients. We treat each other like family at the lodge. We celebrate birthdays and throw going home parties. All of the interactions with the staff members are friendly and easy-going. There is a night security but otherwise, the operation hours of the lodge when the staffs come in don’t start until 8 in the morning.