Final Exam, Coursework Example

Palliative care can be given to anyone who is seriously ill. It can be done at any stage of sickness and any age, and it can be done together with curative treatment. Palliative care does not depend on prognosis. As a result, palliative care offers a bad death because a person does not have a right over his or her life and how death is to take place; since a doctor with a normal sense for self-preservation in the hospital is capable of doing everything he can to ensure that his patients are alive. Hospice care is a vital Medicare benefit, which gives palliative care for patients who are terminally ill and may be remaining with a few months to live. Patients who get hospice care no longer receive curative treatment meant for their underlying illness. Thus, hospice care provides a good death because a person has an overall and unchallengeable right of deciding what type of medical care he needs. The hospital must be careful to ensure that the decision of the individual is honored (Brooker and Waugh, 2013).

There are five levels in the process of grieving and loss. The stages are anger, denial, depression, bargaining and lastly acceptance. Denial and isolation mark the first stage in the process of grieving and loss. It is a common reaction to reduce overwhelming emotions. The second stage is anger, where there is a deflection of the strong emotion from the core of people that are vulnerable, conveyed, and articulated instead as anger. The next grieving stage is known as bargaining where the individual might start trying to make deals by ending the loss or making it leave, or repossessing what has already been lost. Depression is the fourth stage in the grieving process. In this stage, the individual becomes upset and sad nearly all the time. The last grieving stage is acceptance where the individual is fully aware of the loss that occurred. In this stage, people start becoming less emotional over what they have lost. They come into terms with it and are now capable of coping with the loss better (Dossey and Keegan, 2013).

Nurses can assist patients through this grieving and loss process. Potentially difficult times, like anniversary dates or holiday seasons, can be discussed. Role-playing can help as they expect these painful occasions. They can look at the ways the loss or death has led to a change in the social support systems. Spiritual care can be introduced, and this will include helping those who are grieving to look for a new meaning in both death and life. They can be encouraged to put into practice religious rituals and beliefs concerning death, and lead them through a self-reflection process as they meditate on what has occurred to them. As grieving continues, a listening ear can be provided to the people grieving as they pull through the past and make a discovery of new purposes and goals in life (Dossey & Keegan, 2013).

The addiction cycle is a stage generated by changes that are produced in the chemistry of the brain due to abuse of substances. It is brought about by psychological, physiological and emotional dependency. This cycle will continue unrestrained, awaiting some type of intervention, like, legal-intervention, family-intervention and self-intervention. Spiritual development is a journey that continues throughout the lifetime of a person, which develops once spirituality has linked a person back to important things in life and after recovering from addiction. Spiritual transformation, on the other hand, is the change of something overwhelming and massive, like being addicted to drugs, into something incremental and something that can be managed (Brooker & Waugh, 2013).

Drugs that are commonly abused include cannabinoids, anticholinergics, dissociatives, psychedelics, opiates, stimulants, volatiles, and sedative-hypnotics. The associated intoxication effects include dysphagia, burning dysuria, diplopia, constipation, body image distortions and hallucinations. The abuse of substances to the professional nurses suggests that the probability of nurses being in contact with users of drugs has increased. Nurses should view this contact as a chance to improve an individual’s health status. Nurses do not always have confidence in their capability of looking after problematic users of drugs, and this has the potential to undermine care. The attitude of the nurse towards a patient may be influenced by drug use. Nurses need to familiarize themselves with local protocols and policies that are related to illicit use of drugs in their environment of work (Brooker & Waugh, 2013).

Drug users can be assisted by the family through loving them, promoting and living according to moral values, throughout the society, which is easily misguided. There can be a list of several values, but the ones that dominate today’s world are homosexuality, abortion and sexual immorality. The family shows love to children through building personal, intimate relationships with children and spending time with them. Racial and ethnic issues can be addressed within the family, particularly, in the ways parents transmit or communicate cultural beliefs, values, behaviors and customs to children and the degree to which the child internalizes these messages. This takes on the cultural expectations and norms, and attains the skills of becoming a functional and competent member of a society that is racially diverse. The children are also educated by the family on moral values for them to mature, and convey these values to coming generations as a happy and safe place for every person to live and take pleasure in (Dossey & Keegan, 2013).

An aura can be described as a field of energy, which surrounds, goes through and extends out past the physical body, is electromagnetic, magnetic and electric and consist of types of lives that are varying and intelligent frequencies or vibrations. Chakras refer to electric energy wheels that are spinning and of diverse colors, which have several functions connecting fields of people’s energy, the wider Cosmic Energy Field, and bodies. Meridian can be described as the pathways of natural energy of the body exploited for healing. Intention is the mind’s focus on a specific healing achievement (Dossey & Keegan, 2013). Future and current implications of research for energy healing explain the era in which people are in, is the energy medicine period. A renewed belief in spirituality and holism being embraced by individuals as part of medicine has led to ancient healing wisdom being embraced again. Holistic or Energy Medicine’s future lies in humanistic, compassionate practitioners’ education.

References

Brooker, C., & Waugh, A. (2013). Foundations of nursing practice: Fundamentals of holistic care. Oxford: Mosby.

Dossey, B. M., & Keegan, L. (2013). Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.