Replies week 4

495 week 4 Replies to do

APA and References

Due date 10/02/2020

Discussion Prompt

Discuss two areas of difficulty you encountered or two new nursing interventions you learned this week at your clinical site. You may also choose to share one of each. Please remember to respond to two of your peers.

Reply 1 Joy

This week, two difficult areas I experienced, was the passing of a patient by the time, I spoke with the caregiver of the patient. I was attempting to empathize and sympathize, and yet I felt like it did not matter what I said, that I could not really change the situation, or bring that person back.  I simply listened, and stated I was "here" on the other end of the phone. The second most difficult situation, is when I am making calls, and I make  calls to the same patient, caregiver, or family, and leave messages. But rarely get a return call, even though I have called more than once, and have explained why I have called and the purpose of my contacting them in association with VITAS.

Reply 2 Jeremy

As I become more comfortable with this assignment, a difficulty that I was presented was not being able to have a greater understanding, over the phone, of the caregiver or family member's present psychological condition of grief.  In the hospital, I am able to comprehend, face to face, the feelings of a loved one experiencing the grief and able to communicate appropriately my sincere feelings of condolence.  Over the phone, I am faced with the challenge of trying to discover, if the caregiver or family member is talking about their grief, what stage of grief is being expressed.  

Recently, I was on the phone with a family member who had lost their loved one from a chronic condition at a hospice care center.  This person was very forthright and grasped the loss as a part of life and was an expected outcome.  This person was accepting what had happened and "accepting the reality that the loved one is physically gone and recognizing that this new reality is the permanent reality." (Grief.com).  

While this call enabled me to communicate appropriately, there are some calls involving more ambiguous states of emotion and stages of grief and this is an ongoing challenge.