Chemical Dependency - Essay Example

When a patient is undergoing any sort of chemotherapy, it can be a very emotional and trying experience, since cancer is something that nearly everyone fears. At certain times, this fear can become overwhelming, to the point where it can completely crush an individual’s spirit. This is particularly true when dealing with a relapse that leads to palliative care for a patient, as this experience will almost always ruin an individual’s morale. In these cases, health care providers must be very careful, as often times personal beliefs can cloud there judgments and cause for them to provide unwanted help to these individuals that they deem are in need. This can include things like spiritual healing, which could go against the beliefs of certain patients and, therefore, is something that should be avoided. Also, although the use of some drugs can relieve pain and, therefore, make things easier on both the health care professional and the patient, this can lead to further problems in the future and should only be used in moderation because of a fear of chemical dependency. When dealing with a patient, all health care providers should exercise caution because it is their job to make things as easy as possible for the patient, but they must also follow ethical guidelines because of the long term effects that their care can inflict. Medical science develops different aspects of health and illness than the lay belief systems. This phenomenon should be regarded as expected if we think that medical science is based on the scientific knowledge while lay belief systems are based on the personal attitudes of health and illness as they have developed under the influence of specific cultural and social background. In this context, lay beliefs refer mostly to the function of the human body trying to explain in simple words why a specific illness was developed. Under these terms, lay beliefs can be influenced by the cultural and the social traditions of a specific population. Media and Internet are also expected to have a major impact on the development of lay belief systems. Medical science, on the other hand, has a ‘pure’ scientific approach to all health related problems trying to explain the appearance and the development of diseases using medical models and theories. Because of this, a medical model which was based on the influence of internal and external factors to the individual’s personal aspects regarding chronic illness was developed. This research led to the assumption that genes can have a major influence on the people’s ability to resist to specific illness. This finding can help to respond the common question: ‘Why this illness appeared to me?’ and other similar ones. The above approach cannot be used by the medical science which refers only to the appropriate methods for the treatment of a particular disease and not to the reasons of its appearance. Under these terms, the communication between the doctor and the patient can be influenced in accordance with the lay belief systems developed by people regarding a particular illness. More specifically, because doctors are based on the medical science for the investigation of any health problem, the intervention of lay beliefs in such a problem could be regarded by the doctor even as an inappropriate behaviour. The difference between lay beliefs and scientific knowledge can lead to severe communication problems between the doctor and the patient. Chemical dependency is a growing problem in society that is affecting an increasing number of people. While the occasional experimentation with illegal substances is common for people, it brings up an entirely new set of problems when it occurs within a patient. Since the patient is given this medication by a doctor, he or she will often believe that it is acceptable to take as much as needed. This can lead to depression, where these individuals will go through lengthy periods of time where they are unable to experience any happiness or pleasure. They also tend to get down on themselves to the point where they feel worthless to everyone, including themselves. This can lead to negative performances in everyday life, because they feel as though the outcome will be negative regardless of their effort. This is a problem that must be examined because it leads to suicide in some instances. Post-chemo chemical dependency is something that can be very difficult to diagnose because there are many emotional problems that go along with treatment, which has led to a significant gap in the knowledge base regarding the phenomenon. This means that many different techniques are being used to help treat the problem, with each having multiple variations within itself. Chemical dependence is defined as a “compulsive use of chemicals (drugs or alcohol) and the inability to stop using them despite all the problems caused by their use“ (Children‘s Hospital of Wisconsin, 2007). This means that the individual will be aware of what is occurring, but will still be unable to stop using the drugs because he or she is physically and mentally addicted to them. The causes of this dependency start with how society perceives these problems, as every dependency begins as substances abuse. Society is able to influence how much of these substances can be consumed before a problems arises. Laws are also in place that determine what can be consumed and who can consume it. In cases where an individual has been receiving treatment, these laws are often stretched because of what the individual has been through and this medication is given out for longer than it is needed. It is up to doctors to limit this sort of abuse, as it only fixes the problem for the short term. Post-treatment therapy should be given out to patients, as well as a safe place for these patients to overcome any addictions that may have occurred while receiving treatment. Perhaps the most important ethical problem in the hospital management sector is how those in charge deal with medical errors. As with any important issue, there are differing opinions on whether or not the proper steps are being taken to avoid this problem in the future. It has been said that “leaders of the medical profession and of healthcare organizations do not include reducing medical errors among their top priorities. Therefore, the level of commitment to analyzing relationships between errors and adverse outcomes on the one hand and organizational systems and processes on the other has so far been modest” (Jacott, 2003), which is an indication that management has not been taking an active role in reducing these problems. Others, however, argue that “The sleeping giant has awoken. Both the public and purchasers are increasingly aware of the safety problems in medicine, and they are applying pressure. As a profession, we are at a crossroads. We have solid epidemiologic data to demonstrate that iatrogenic injury is a major problem. Leaders are now recognizing that the traditional response--that physicians do the best they can--is no longer enough” (Jacott, 2003). Healthcare leaders are beginning to take control of this situation a little more than they had in the past, but more has to be done to ensure patient safety, which begins with lowering the number of medical errors. This is the most important ethical issue because peoples’ lives are at stake when mistakes are made. Trustees in the field are beginning to implement patient safety briefings for all employees in an effort to make sure fewer mistakes occur. Placing the blame on someone after a mistake is made does not do any good because the damage has already been done. Therefore, it is important to get to the bottom of these problems and stop them before they occur. What these medical leaders need to do in order to put an end to these issues is not only educate their employees on how to ensure patient safety, but also to only put medical professionals into situations that they can handle. No one is perfect, but these medical errors can be cut down on by management knowing their employees well enough to help them avoid getting over their heads in any situation. This also protects the health care providers legally against any problems that might arise through a misdiagnosis or an improper treatment. From a holistic perspective, it is important to keep in mind the wellness of the individual as a whole, rather than simply focusing on the disease. Traditionally clinicians develop the plan of patient management, whereas nurses work directly with the implementation of this plan (Eastern & Burns, 2001). Doctors see the disease and its symptoms, but nurse perceive their patient holistically as the personality. Measurement conducted by the clinicians is mechanistic act and their time for the appointment is limited to several minutes whilst the nurse pays much more attention to each patient and can manage interviewing more effectively (Koay & Marks, 1996) & (Hoffman et al, 2004). To face the new challenges of the modern practice - nurses should extend their professional responsibilities and take more functions particularly in taking patient history and providing physical examination. This role transition became a problem not only for novices recently graduated from nursing schools but also for experienced nurses (Price, 2004), (Roberts, 2006) & (Pena & Castillo, 2006). This is not the particularistic problem of education. The readiness to obtain the new role is closely associated with the nurse’s personality, their strengths and weaknesses, their motivation to work in the new conditions and, finally, their vision of the changed landscape of health care and nursing practice (Fitzpatrick & Wallace, 2005) & (Could, Drey & Berridge, 2006). The personal aspects on health and illness are influenced by a series of elements. In this case the accuracy of a personal assumption made during the evaluation of a particular case of health or illness is an extremely challenging task. On the other hand, Merluzzi (1999, 7) stated that “from a behavioural perspective, health and illness in general, not just the specific diseases suggested by proponents of the psychosomatic medicine, are influenced by a diversity of factors that are psychological, social, environmental, as well as biological in nature“. At the same time, the role of specific factors, like the cultural and the social background in the development of specific approaches regarding the health and the illness has been highlighted by many researchers. More specifically, the study of Blaxter (1990, 4) showed that in Western world “the traditional approaches of epidemiology have become more complex mostly because many of the health problems are degenerative and chronic; there is now recognition that most diseases have multiple and interactive causes“. The above views should not lead to the assumption that health problems in West are more severe or more often. In fact, there is a significant equality in health problems around the world and no specific criterion could be used for the formulation of a different conclusion apart perhaps from the cases of extremely poor countries where the aspects of health and mortality are closely connected with the extremely low level of quality of life which can be considered as totally differentiated from the Western style of life. In any case, it has been proved that the human behaviour towards health and illness is depended more on the personal attitudes regarding the specific issue (Schacter et al., 1962) while any theoretical model that have been developed in the relevant area can be used only as a supplement tool mainly by the researchers that try to identify the characteristics of health and illness from a scientific point of view. In these situations, communication is a major factor, since each individual is different. While many doctors will only see a patient in terms of the illness, this is often not an effective way of treating an individual because each individual needs different care because each situation is different. By taking a more holistic approach, health care providers will be able to give patients the best care possible, which often means doing things that are outside the realm of scientific medicine. Also, things like chemical dependency must be examined, as many doctors will simply prescribe these things because a patient requests them, which can lead to more problems if the patient does, in fact, make a recovery. The holistic approach to medicine is effective and, therefore, is something that should be utilized in situations where chemotherapy is used. Works Cited Blaxter, M. 1990, Health and Lifestyles, Routledge, London. Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin, 2007, Substance Abuse / Chemical Dependence, Available at: http://www.chw.org/display/router.asp?DocID=21784 Could, D., Drey, N. & Berridge, E., 2006, Nurses’ experiences of continuing professional development. Nurse Education Today, 14, pp. 90-105. Eastern, K. & Burns, N., 2001, Crossing the professional boundaries: advanced nurse practioners. Nursing Times, 97 (15), pp. 42-43. Fitzpatrick, E. & Wallace, L., 2005, Encyclopaedia of Nursing Research, Springer Publishing Company, London. Hoffman, K., Donoghue, J. & Duffield, C., 2004, Decision-making in clinical nursing: investigating contributing factors. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 45 (1), pp. 53–62 Jacott, W., September 2003, Medical Errors and Patient Safety, Postgraduate Medicine, (Online), 114 (3). Available at: http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/2003/09_03/editorial_sep.htm Koay, C. & Marks, N., 1996, A nurse-led pre-admission clinic for elective ENT surgery: the first 8 months, Annals of Royal College of Surgery England, 78, pp. 15-19. Merluzzi, T., White, R. & Whitman, T, 1999, Life-Span Perspectives on Health and Illness, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ. Pena, D. & Castillo, R., 2006, Factors influencing nursing staff members’ participation, in continuing education. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, 14 (3), pp. 309-315. Price, T., 2004, Encouraging reflection & critical thinking in practice. Nursing Standard, 18 (4), pp. 46-52. Roberts, M., 2006, Learning experiences of seconded pre-registration nursing students, Nursing Standard, 20 (36), pp. 41-45. Schacter, S. & Singer, J. E., 1962, Cognitive, social and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychological Review 69: 379-399. Read More