Health Psychosocial Model of Health Use Questions

Health

Psychosocial Model of Health

Use questions 2, 3, 5, 11, and 12

Many times a health professional will look at a health issue and see only the problem at hand. The difficulty with this approach is that most health problems affect the entire person whether or not the issue is localized or not. The psychosocial model of health looks at more than an individual's physical state to determine how they will respond to treatments in the short- and long-term. A patient's psychological well-being and their support system are as important as a willingness to see a treatment through to the end. The following paper looks at two patients and whether they were well-served from a psychosocial perspective, and, if not, what improvements could be made to serve the patient better.

In the documentaries, two of the patient interviews stood out as especially relevant to this discussion. One of these instances was a young woman, 19 years old, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo a mastectomy procedure. The woman was present at the consultation with her female doctor and her mother to determine how her double mastectomy would proceed. The doctor explained the operation and the follow up care, and then explained that the team would also take some frozen lymph sections during the surgery. In the follow up, the young woman was told that the cancer had metastasized to her lymph glands and that she would need further treatment. Another patient, a young man who was a singer by trade, saw a doctor regarding the results of a mouth lesion. The doctor was kind and straightforward with the young man about what proved to be a benign growth, but he seemingly did little to alleviate any fears the patient would have.

The two cases seemed to illustrate one of the issues doctors have when talking to a patient. Doctors are trying to see as many people as they can during a given day, and they may miss something when they are talking to one of their patients. It is especially difficult for the doctor when the patients do not know what questions to ask during their interviews with the doctor. Considering the importance of the psychosocial aspect of healthcare, this would seem to be a critical misstep by doctors.

Research indicates that central to a person's well-being is there psychosocial needs. An individual can receive the correct treatments, be responsive to those treatments, and continue to deteriorate for unknown reasons. Patients need to both feel that they are safe and know what is happening to them. In one research study, Sidani (2008) examined the effectiveness of new patient-centered care alternatives. The author explained that because people are individuals, healthcare needs to focus on the needs of the singular person rather than continue to adopt the one-size-fits-all method of healthcare. The study by Sidani found that patients were more responsive to individualized treatment initiatives, and that the patient was more comfortable with this type of care.

In the two cases selected from the videos, it is not that the doctors were inaccurate with their diagnosis or that they did not answer the patients questions, but they did not do enough to alleviate the fears the patients had regarding the procedures. A doctor is likely to respond generically to a patient with a given diagnosis without realizing that the individual has a greater level of concern than they have demonstrated (McNeilis, 2002). Because the doctor has to move on to other patients and the patient may not know the questions to ask, there can be a breakdown in communication that results in the patients psychosocial needs being unfulfilled. The patient has a bond to the doctor because that physician is intimately involved in a situation which could be a matter of life or death, but the doctor is just addressing another person in their daily healthcare routine. While this may seem callous, it does not mean that the doctor does not care about the patient, it just means that they are not as focused on the important psychosocial aspects of health as they probably should be.

Although both of the videos had to do with doctors talking to patients, it is the same when an individual is talking to any healthcare worker. Communication is probably the most important aspect of the profession, and it may also be the most neglected portion (Back, et al., 2007). In the first scenario, the doctor is delivering bad news to the patient (she is going to need additional treatment for malignant lymph glands). The healthcare professional in this instance needs to have had training regarding the inner conversation the patient is having and acknowledge that (Back, et al., 2007). As demonstrated in research regarding healthcare communication issues, people often have mistaken ideas about healthcare when they are not properly instructed by a nurse or physician (Douglass, Sowell & Phillips, 2003). The girl who needs to have further chemotherapy, radiation treatments or surgery to address the lymph problem, may need to doctor to reassure her because it is customary to think of worst case scenarios when faced with what seems to be a dire diagnosis (Ellingson, 2002). The healthcare professional needs to make the effort to try and understand what the patient is thinking so that the professional (doctor or nurse) can alleviate any fears that are developing.

The young lady apparently had a support system to assist her with decision making and coping, but the young man in the other interview segment had no one with him. Coping skills are an integral part of the psychosocial picture. Mi Baik and Adams (2011) did work on helping couples work through the cancer diagnosis of one or the other. The couples were taught communication and coping skills, and they were assisted in this effort by both professional counselors and other healthcare personnel. It is important for nurses to assess the support system and coping skills of the individual patient either through direct questioning during an interview or through observation. Some patients are less likely to respond to treatment because they cannot rectify the diagnosis.