Stress and Coping

The psychosocial theory of emphasis and head is of the utmost importance to patient tutorship and recovery. It has been found that among other things, stress can travel the rate of wound healing, susceptibility to infectious diseases, and the development and progression of cancer (Walker et al, 2007). The nurse plays an integral grapheme in the management and alleviation of patients stress, and can provide valuable mechanisms to aid in the process of coping with the stressor.Stress is a concept, not a fact, and is best described by using a suppositional model (Walker et al, 2007). One of these models is the Lazarus and Folkmans transactional model of stress and coping. It suggests that stress can be reduced by interventions that make the person think differently about the stressor, or that a persons light of their ability to cope with the stressor can be changed (Glanze et al, 2008).In the text to follow, it will demonstrate how nursing care has benefited from the application o f this theoretical model, and how particular nursing care interventions can help change patients perspective of certain stressors, and their ability to cope with the stressor. The entire family, not just the patient experiences the stresses associated with a family member being hospitalized (Lewis et al, 1989).By involving the family in a patients care regime it can change the persons perspective of their ability to cope, by providing a accommodate network, and can help alleviate not unless the patients stress, but the stress of the family too. The nurse needs to understand what family means to the patient. It might not be traditional, for example related by blood, or married. Patient care should be planned with the family in mind, and families should be made aware of what the care plan is. This way they are better equipped to support the patient (Lewis et al, 1989).