Psychological Perspectives in Nursing: Savanna Case Study, NS106

This essay delves into the crucial role of psychological perspectives in nursing, emphasizing the significance of understanding a patient's mental health for providing holistic care. The assignment analyzes the case of Savanna, a patient with generalized anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, applying Erikson's theory of psychosocial development to assess her psychological well-being. The essay highlights how Savanna's experiences, including her difficult family situation and struggles with her children, have impacted her psychological health, particularly in relation to intimacy versus isolation. Furthermore, the essay discusses the bio-psycho-social model of care, advocating for a comprehensive approach that addresses biological, psychological, and social factors to ensure patient well-being. The analysis underscores the importance of nurses considering a patient's psychological history and current circumstances when developing care plans, emphasizing the need for interventions that support both the physical and mental health of the patient, ultimately promoting a better quality of life. The essay stresses the importance of the nurses developing skills to help patients cope up with stressful situations and developing lasting relationships.

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

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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

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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

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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

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also important for the healthcare professionals to develop an understanding about the transition
from the previous stage to the present stage. Therefore, brief analysis of stage 5 called identity
versus role confusion is also important in analyzing psychological health of Savanna (Sampaio et
al. 2015).
The fifth psychological stage mainly takes place around the turbulent teenage years from
13 to 21 years. This stage plays as essential role in the development of sense of personal identity
which would continue to influence the behaviors as well as the development of the rest of the life
of the person. Studies are of the opinion that children explore their independence and thereby
develop a sense of self (Papadaki et al. 2015). Those children who are seen to receive proper
encouragement as well as reinforcement through their personal exploration mainly emerge from
this stage with a strong sense of self and feelings of independence and control. This show
remains unsure of their beliefs and desires and feels insecure and confused about themselves as
well as their future. Researchers when they talk about identity, they actually mean that they are
referring to beliefs, ideals, and values that help in shaping and guiding their
behaviors. Completing this stage successfully helps in leading to fidelity
which is actually the ability of an individual to live by the standards and
expectations by the society (Woodhead et al. 2016). It was found that
Savanna had most of the time spent her days in the houses of different
relatives as her parents were separated and remained busy in their own
professionals placing Savanna in each of the relatives’ house. Later she
was shifted to the hostel where she lived all by herself and her introvert
nature never helped her to make friends. During the entire teenage
period, she was always found to be low of confidence and even did not

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get the scope of developing appropriate beliefs, ideals, and values that
helps in developing self-identity mainly because she never got a family to
nurture her feelings and needs. She could never develop the self-identity
and always suffered from low mood and confusion. Absence of self-
identity made her a weaker person psychologically where she never
developed the confidence to fight with struggles and strenuous situation
and easily broke down in--front of her issues.
Following this stage, the next stage is called the stage of intimacy
versus isolations which mainly covers the period of early adulthood when
people are exploiting their personal relationships. This stage mainly
occurs from age 21 to 39. Savanna is 26 years of age and falls into these
category (Darling et al. 2015). Erikson believes that it is important for
people to develop close as well as committed relationships with that of
the other people. Those individuals who become successful in these steps
can successfully develop relationships that are not only ensuring but also
secure (DeVon 2018). This step is well-linked to that of the previous stage
where a strong sense of personal identity is important for developing
intimate relationships. It has been found that people who demonstrate
poor sense of self do tend to have less committed relationships and are
more likely to suffer from emotional isolation as well as loneliness and
depression. Successful resolution of this stage helps the individual in
developing the virtue known as the love (Kring et al. 2017). This is indeed

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marked by the ability in developing a lasting relationship with that of the
other people. It has been seen in case of Savanna that due to lack of self-
identity, she could not develop skills and attributes that can help in
developing strong enduring relationship with their partner. She had
always avoided intimacy, feared commitment and also relationships that
had led her to isolation, loneliness. Poor sense of self in Savanna did not
allow her to develop strong connection with her husband which had
resulted in separation of the couple within 6 years of the marriage. All
these failures had affected her psychological development that had
affected her well-being and had made her an extremely emotional person
who lacked the ability in fighting with various strenuous situations in life.
Bio-psycho-social model of care:
The bio-psycho-social model of care is the best approach that the
nursing professionals need to take to ensure that holistic care is provided
to patients. Holistic care can be defined as the form of care that ensures
that the patient is provided a care which helps in comprehensive healing
of their physical, mental, spiritual and emotional attributes. For long
biomedical model of care had helped nursing professionals to consider
only the biological determinants of health which did not ensure quality
care of the patients that did not helped the patients to develop the
quality of lives of the patients (Cusack et al. 2016). Only the physical
attributes were taken into consideration of the treatment. Therefore,

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people although overcame their physical symptoms of the ailment but
they could not enjoy quality lives. Often the disorders were seen to
recover and patient readmission rates were also found to high. Hence, the
bio-psycho-social model of care had been proposed which took into
consider not only the biological determinists but also considered the
psychological and social factors that affected the patients. This model of
care believes in developing a comprehensive care plan that meet the
psychological, physical as well as social needs of people and help them to
live satisfactory and happy lives (Higgins 2017).
Bio-psycho-social model of care – its application in Savanna’s life:
Savanna had been treated in the acute care ward and her physical
health is cared and treated by the nursing professionals. It is now
important for nursing professionals to determine the psychological and
social determinants of health and accordingly interventions need to be
provided for her. It has been found from the psychological analysis that
failure in overcoming the conflicts faced by her in her different stages of
psychosocial development had made her a emotionally weak person
where she lacks of confidence and strength of coping with strenuous
issues successfully in her lives. She had been facing issues because of her
estranged relationship with her husband and lacks self-identity. She had
failed to develop self-coping abilities and stress management attributes
and had given up all hopes of the situation of managing children with

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special needs (Garcia et al. 2016). This had resulted her in development
of depression, anxiety as well as stress. In order to overcome such health
issues, she would be referred to psychotherapy sessions. Present studies
are of the opinion that talking therapies like cognitive behavioral
therapies can help in managing mental health problems like depression,
anxiety as well as stress. This would help in managing the mental health
conditions of Savanna successfully. The different social determinants of
health that are impacting Savanna’s life are financial constraints due to
lower incomes as well as social exclusion. Unemployment had made it
difficult for her to manage the healthcare expenses of the children and is
also not found to be sufficient to live satisfactory quality of lives.
Moreover, she has to take care of the children throughout the day which
leaves her drained of energy. Fatigue and tiredness prevent her from
socializing with other members in her family as well as friends and other
members of society, she remain confined within her house throughout the
days that had affected her emotional stability because of social exclusion
(Roach 2019). To overcome social exclusion, she would be advised to
attend sessions conducted by specialized experts who can help mothers
to learn about ways by which they can manage children with specific
needs. She can be also refereed to peer-supports that can provide her
help and guidance from their own experiences of handling children with
specific needs. She can also be referred to join social media groups where

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similar parents interact over the social media and help each other and
encourage each other with suggestions and guidance to handle such
children (Rui et al. 2017). All these would help her in overcoming stress of
managing the children and she would not feel lonely as well.
From the above discussion, it can be understood that nurses need
to understand the psychology of the patients to provide them better care
options. Psychology would help the nurses to realize the thought process
and mental abilities of patients to handle different situations and gives
them ideas about how to provide care so that patients can experience
better help outcomes. It can be also seen that Erikson’s stage of
psychosocial development can help identifying the psychological
development procedures in patients and help nurses to understand the
rationale of the psychology harbored by patients. Following the bio-
psycho-social model of care can ultimately help nurses to realize not only
the biological determinists of health but also the psychological and social
factors of affecting the health of the patient. accordingly, care plans
would be developed that would provide holistic care to patients.
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