Mental Health of Critical Patients

Question: How do healthcare professionals influence the mental health of clients and families in positive ways and negative ways? Answer: Mental health can be considered as one of the most important factors of well being of critical patients (Arving and Holmstrm, 2011).Although the condition of mental health impacts on the overall health condition of patients, the importance is more evident in case of those patients who are suffering from any oncology diseases (Boltz, 2012).The mental health of patient can be changed by the influence of nurses. The current assignment deals with analysis of positive and negative influence of nurses on mental condition of oncology patients who have chronic mental diseases. Presence of mental diseases such as dementia, bipolar syndrome degrades the quality of life of a patient. Apart from these diseases increases difficulty for treatment other ailments. According to Boyle and Levin, (2008) the patients who are under any cancer related treatments, are found to feel more stress than other patients. However, being mentally stressed can cause different physical problem and this it can increase the complexity of oncology patients. Apart from this lifespan of people who are suffering from chronic mental diseases reduces significantly the nurses can provide support and guidance to the family members of a patient so that they can reduce the stress. Support of these workers is also required for encouraging the patient for leading a healthy life style. Often the patients with mental diseases fail to follow the instructions given by doctor. Nurses can train these people so that they can follow health instructions. The quality of life degrades in case of people suffering from mental diseases. As a result often these patients become reluctant to continue any treatment. Nurses can counsel these patients so that they follow healthy lifestyle. If these workers counsel the patients and their family, stress can be reduced significantly. In Saudi Arab, health care workers such as doctors or nurses are highly respected. It indicates that they can easily convince a patient for changing their lifestyles for making the treatment more effective. As success rate of treatment on oncology patients is still limited, complexity can increase due to presence of certain chronic mental diseases such as dementia, Alzheimers etc. It can reduce the effectiveness of treatment. As health workers such as nurses play an important role in the treatment of critical patients, the influence the of these health workers on the metal condition of a patient is also high. Communication style plays an important role for encouraging mental patients. Although the health workers can enhance effectiveness of cancer treatment, often it is observed that their behavior and communication style is impacting negatively on the health of a patient (Haylock, 2011). In case of oncology treatment style of communication is important for reducing stress. When the health worker are discussing about any terminal diseases with patients they require being conscious that the communication is not creating pressure on the patient and other family members (Boyle and Levin, 2008). If the patient becomes disappointed regarding the treatment it may lead to termination of the process and this nature of patients can result degradation of their condition. According to Bunz (2008) requirement of support is more for cancer patients. The patients, who need to change their lifestyle due to cancer, often need the help of health workers to be habituated with the changed lifestyle. Apart from this social position of a patient also impacts on the mental health. In case of Saudi Arabia, presence of extended family is effective for reducing the stress on patients who are suffering from terminal diseases as most of the pole of this country belongs to Islamic religion, the Islamic philosophy also enables these patients to reduce their stress. However, the importance of health workers cannot be denied. Support of family is important for the treatments related with oncology (Boyle and Levin, 2008). As the number of cancer patient in Saudi Arabia is increasing, the need of support from health workers is also increasing. It is observed that most of the cancer patients in Saudi Arabia are aged people. The number of breast cancer patients is also increasing (National Cancer Institute, 2015). It indicates that these patients require more care and support from health workers while being treated. References: Arving, C. and Holmstrom, I. (2011). Creating a new profession in cancer nursing? Experiences of working as a psychosocial nurse in cancer care. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20(19-20), pp.2939-2947. Boltz, M. (2012). Evidence-based geriatric nursing protocols for best practice. New York: Springer Pub. Co. Boyle, P. and Levin, B. (2008). World cancer report. Lyon: IARC Press. Bunz, F. (2008). Principles of cancer genetics. [Dordrecht]: Springer. Haylock, P. (2011). Cancer Nursing: The Modern Era. Oncology Nursing Forum, 38(0), pp.E7-E14.