Psychological Perspectives in Nursing: Understanding the Importance of Psychology in Holistic Care

Running head: PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
Introduction:
Psychology is an important part of the applied science that is found to be useful in
studying of the mental functions as well as behavior of individuals and also helps in developing
an understanding of the needs of every individual and groups in a community. The field of
psychology and social psychology is found to be of great importance in nursing profession
(Barker 2016). Psychology can be explained as the study of the thorough process and mental
functioning of individuals while social psychology mainly helps in showing how behavior and
mental process of individuals are affected by social situations in their lives. Social psychology
also helps in emphasizing more on the ways and the reasons why an individual behave in a
particular way under the presence of social situations as well as norms (Milne 2015). In the field
of nursing, psychology mainly helps the nursing professionals in understanding the mental
thought process that shows how an individual responds to a situation, their coping abilities
with various disorders, the support systems required by individuals in stressful times and the
different attitudes exhibited by them in various situations. This assignment would show how
knowledge about the psychological health of patients can help in developing a comprehensive
holistic care of patients ensuring them better quality life.
Psychology as an important part of nursing:
In the nursing profession, healthcare workers are seen to come from various walks of life
where each of them have their own physical, mental as well as social and economical issues that
affect their living. Nurses also often need to interact with the relatives of patients who are present
and help them to accommodate and gradually adopt to the stressful situation at the same time of
developing hope among the family members (Boland et al. 2016). Every different patient has

2
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
their own coping abilities and self management skills which govern their health outcomes. In all
the spheres, it becomes extremely important for the nurses to understand the psychology of the
patients and include the identified psychological issues in the care planning process. Studies
have found out that nurses need to consider developing interventions for the psychological well
being of the patient to ensure holistic care of the patients. Hence, psychology had become an
important part of nursing profession. Studies have stated that psychology acts as an important
part in the health care where it plays an important role either in development of the disorder
or recovering from it. In order to make the healthcare successful in controlling the disorders,
it becomes necessary for the nurses to identify not only the disorder but also the psychology of
the individual as well (Clearly et al. 2016). Apart from that of the effective diagnostic, it is
significant to note that each and every individual is unique in most respects. The way in which an
individual responds to the treatment procedure cannot be the same for everyone and hence,
psychology can help in understanding a situation where an individual might have an issue with
treatment or its acceptance as well.
Episode of care provided to Savanna:
The patient named Savanna is admitted to the psychiatric day hospital from that of the
acute care department. She was admitted to the acute care after an overdose and was treated there
for a week. From there, she was transferred to the psychiatric ward as she was identified to be
suffering from generalized anxiety, depression as we as obsession compulsive disorders. She had
traumatic experiences in her motherhood where she had suffered from multiple miscarriages and
even a still birth of twins. Her son was born with autism spectrum disorder then and her daughter
was born with bone dysplasia and sleeps with a machine. Savanna had been seen to go through
tumultuous days handling her children alone as most of the time her husband is out of time on

3
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
job and returns rarely in a year. She is not being able to cope up managing the children with
special needs and hence she had been seeing to suffer from stress as well as anxiety. She had
become stressed by managing the financial situation of the house where she is the only earning
member who has to care for both of her children as well as the old mother. Her husband rarely
sends money to them even when employed. Struggling with so many issues single handedly has
made her develop depression, anxiety and stress. In order to help her overcome the situations and
live better quality life, nurses would need to identify her need and develop care plans
accordingly.
Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development:
The famous psychologist had put forward an eighth stage theory of psychosocial
development where he had opines that social experiences impact the psychological development
if individuals throughout her whole lifespan. He is of the opinion that each stage of the theory is
mainly built on the preceding stages and thereby each of the stage paves the way for the
following periods of development (Johansen and Obrien 2016). It has been found that in each of
the stage, people are seen to face conflicts that mainly play the role of turning points in their
lives. These conflicts mainly remain centered on either the development of psychological quality
or failing to develop the psychological quality. During this time the potential for growth is high
but there also remains high level of risks that remain associated with it (Barley and Lawson
2017).
Application of Erikson’s theory on psychological well being of Savanna:
Savanna is 26 years old and accordingly she falls into the category called stage 6 called
intimacy versus isolation in the Erikson’s theory. However, as per the opinion of Erikson, it is