Patient Care: Depression Resulting from Illness or Injury Analysis

This discussion post reflects on a nurse's experience with a patient suffering from depression after a stroke. The post details the patient's emotional struggles, including feelings of awkwardness, embarrassment, sadness, boredom, and loneliness due to her physical limitations. The nurse implemented weekly counseling sessions to help the patient cope with her grief, set new expectations, and address her fears and anxieties. While the treatment was effective, the nurse reflects on how redefining the patient's belief system about her life could have further improved the outcome. The post also touches on the legal and ethical implications of caring for patients with depression resulting from illnesses or injuries, such as obtaining consent, ensuring proper documentation, providing compassionate care, respecting patient privacy and choice, and maintaining transparency. The post concludes by emphasizing the importance of counseling by professional psychologists and counselors in helping patients overcome depression and find new meaning in life after injury.

Running head: DEPRESSION AFTER ILLNESS OR INJURY 1
Depression after Illness or Injury
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

DEPRESSION AFTER ILLNESS OR INJURY 2
Depression after Illness or Injury
Sudden and unexpected health events may change an individual's life in many ways.
Health events are characterized by sadness, shock, grief, anger, and loss. With time, such
feelings pass, but when they result in continuous stress, a patient may be at risk of anxiety
and depression. Likewise, people living with chronic illnesses are at greater risks of
developing anxiety and depression (Albrecht & Kiptanui, 2015). There are also less common
chronic physical illnesses that are associated with depression, for example, chronic fatigue
syndrome and chronic pain. Most people with major illnesses and injuries are always
susceptible to post-injury depression. The depression may be worse if the illness or injury has
changed the patient's ways of life permanently (Ouellet & Beaulieu, 2018).
I once had a patient who suffered from a massive stroke. She was a 58-year-old lady
who loved taking a walk with her husband and was crazy about Zumba lessons. The stroke
was unexpected and severe such that she could not drive, walk, and use the left side of her
body. She had to be assisted when going to the toilet. The fact that she relied on her children
and husband made her feel awkward and embarrassed.
I put her through intense physiotherapy and after two weeks, she started taking back
some basic remnants of her privacy and independence. However, the initial experience
emotionally shuttered her and she could not adjust to her new version. She was not able to do
many activities she enjoyed before the attack and this made her sad, bored, and lonely.
Although she was responding well to the treatment, she was scared of having a stroke attack
again, missing out, and the manner in which she would cope. It affected her feeding and she
saw no reason of getting out of bed.
Being a chancellor, the strategy I used were scheduled weekly counseling sessions for
my patients for a period of four months. I managed to help her get over her grief and to set
new expectations. I also helped her to develop practical ways of starting a new life. I

DEPRESSION AFTER ILLNESS OR INJURY 3
addressed the fear and anxiety caused by the stroke and reconsidered the unhelpful pattern of
thinking (Ouellet & Beaulieu, 2018). The treatment could have been better if I could have
considered helping her redefine her belief system on how she expected her life to be. In as
much as I was offering a listening ear and emotional support, I could have also mapped the
stages or recovery to provide hope to my patient (Khan & Baguley, 2003).
There are legal and ethical implications that need to be considered when providing
care for patients with illnesses or injuries resulting from depression or suspicious illnesses or
injuries. Some of the legal implications include: consent must be given voluntarily by the
patient or obtained from the legal next of keen if the patient is mentally incapable; and proper
medical documentation (Ringdal & Plos, 2009). The ethical implications include the duty to
provide care; right of privacy; respecting of the patient's choice, transparency; and
effectiveness.
In summary, people may develop depression after a particular experience or event.
Patients experiencing major illnesses and injuries are most likely to experience depression
due to the emotional impact of those illnesses and injuries. The patients can overcome
depression and obtain new life after their injuries if they are counseled by professional
psychologists and counselors.

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References
Albrecht, J. S., Kiptanui, Z., Tsang, Y., Khokhar, B., Liu, X., Simoni-Wastila, L., &
Zuckerman, I. H. (2015). Depression among older adults after traumatic brain injury:
a national analysis. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 23(6), 607-614.
Khan, F., Baguley, I. J., & Cameron, I. D. (2003). 4: Rehabilitation after traumatic brain
injury. Medical Journal of Australia, 178(6), 290-297.
Ouellet, M. C., Beaulieu-Bonneau, S., Sirois, M. J., Savard, J., Turgeon, A. F., Moore, L., ...
& Laviolette, V. (2018). Depression in the first year after traumatic brain injury.
Journal of neurotrauma.
Ringdal, M., Plos, K., Lundberg, D., Johansson, L., & Bergbom, I. (2009). Outcome after
injury: memories, health-related quality of life, anxiety, and symptoms of depression
after intensive care. Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, 66(4), 1226-1233.