Nursing interventions for patient suffering

¶ … nursing interventions of spiritual assessment and therapeutic communication. It will look at how these interventions can support a person suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). Nursing intervention is not uncommon, in fact, in today's health care facilities it is encouraged and recognized as essential for well being in many patients. Several types of intervention have proved especially valuable in treating chronic illnesses such as MS.

Suffering is universal, but there is no single significant definition of suffering. Many consider it 'a state of mind' experienced by diverse people in varying duration and intensity. Suffering is most commonly associated with illness, pain, and dying. It is unique to each individual and is not easily treated. It seems one must experience suffering in some form to treat it most effectively, and this is where nursing intervention is crucial to critical illness treatment and understanding. Currently only a handful of researchers have conducted studies in relation to the effects of interventions for suffering patients, and these studies provide little available information. Broadly, many experts link suffering to spirituality, as suffering can be the result or cause of individuals beginning to question their meaning and understanding of their life and relationships.

The four main points of suffering are isolation, hopelessness, vulnerability and loss. Individuals often experience pain, fear, and hopelessness as well as altered beliefs and emotions. The intensity to which individuals suffer can be categorized as distress, misery, anguish or agony (Reed, 2003). Health care professionals should try to understand suffering from each patient's perspective through empathy, compassion and caring whilst remembering that each individual's concept of suffering differs as culture and socio-economic background guides every individual's definition (Fagerstrom, Eriksson, & Engberg, 1998; Reed, 2003). Thus, professionals must discern a patient's need and concept of their disease and use the appropriate intervention to best suit the patient's need.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by relapse, remission and progression. MS is of unknown cause, has no cure and presents in a different way in every patient. Medically, most physicians and researchers do not consider MS a fatal disease, but it has the potential to increasingly influence a person's quality of life physically, psychologically, socially, spiritually and financially as progression continues. Studies have shown nursing interventions designed to assist the person who is suffering can optimize overall health and well-being.

Even more difficult to define is spirituality, and this is the main challenge with spiritual assessment methods. Spiritual assessment requires the nurse to discern the beliefs of the patient, and assess them accordingly. In addition, many studies warn that spirituality is not always related to religion, but is can be broadly related to the "need for meaning and purpose, identification, or a sense of harmonious interconnectedness when an individual faces emotional stress, physical distress or death" (Roy, 2003). Thus, spiritual assessment can be a vital part of nursing, especially in long-term nurse/patient relationships. It can be an extremely important part of the treatment process because it brings the nurse and patient closer together, and gives the patient hope and support during their time of suffering. Nurses engage in spiritual assessment for a variety of reasons. A nurse must be patient, understanding, caring, and listen well to successfully use spiritual intervention with a patient, and a nurse must of course understand the special needs of an MS patient. Often, their health deteriorates and they need additional intervention as their health wanes.

This type of intervention supports the person suffering by indicating the nurse understands their suffering and their pain, and that they can help them be more comfortable and increase their well-being. While intervention may not make a difference in their actual physical disease, it can make a patient more comfortable, more satisfied, and more at peace with themselves and their circumstances. Patient satisfaction is extremely important for overall patient health and in return visits for continued health care. Studies indicate if patients are dissatisfied or unhappy with their care, they may forego visits or visit another practitioner (Wrench & Booth-Butterfield, 2003). In addition, spiritual intervention can help the sufferers' family cope with the disease and help them give adequate care to the patient at home, which is often much more comfortable for the patient and family and adds to the overall well-being of everyone involved.

Another form of intervention especially useful with MS sufferers is therapeutic communication. This type of intervention requires the nurse to fully understand the nature and progress of MS so they can advise and consul the patient (and family) as to the best course of treatment and reaction to the disease. Therapeutic intervention can include touch, such as therapeutic massage, music, reading, and other forms of physical and mental interaction with the sufferer.