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Caring For Parents With Sick Child In A Hospital Setting
There are many stressors that a parent or caregivers go through when their child is being admitted for treatment to a medical facility. This does not only apply to parents or guardians, but this also applies to any family member or caregiver that is accompanying their loved one in the hospital setting. Healthcare professionals must be equipped with the knowledge to see any signs of stress from the caregivers and step in to intervene.
The PICOT Question
In hospitalization of children suffering from a pediatric condition (P), how does allowing parents to have overnight parental care for the patient (I) compared to denying the parent the opportunity to stay overnight C) affect the anxiety levels of the parents who are involved in the overnight care (O) within the scope of caring for the welfare of the patient for the period of hospitalization (T)?
Management of patients in the hospital platform is a critical factor in ensuring that the healthcare of their caregivers is addressed. The situation advanced by the PICOT question regards the development of anxiety to caregivers when they are exposed to longtime when caring for their children while they are receiving medication in a hospital platform. As such, the medical professionals must determine whether to offer the opportunity for the caregivers to continue taking care of their children or deny them the opportunity to stay with their children overnight to prevent anxiety they develop while advancing the care for the children. Management of anxiety from caregivers when their children suffer from a pediatric condition is a fundamental dimension of preventing the recurrent of the condition altogether.
Signs of anxiety to caregivers
The feeling of tension is one sign of anxiety to caregivers. Excessive exhaustion is another sign. Inability to sleep by the caregiver. Trouble while eating. Lastly is continuous worrying (Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA), 2022). These are the integral signs that would exhibit to a caregiver who is experiencing anxiety while taking care of their loved ones in a hospital setting.
Factors that cause anxiety among caregivers
Continuous worry about the possibility of catastrophe is one factor that causes the caregivers to experience anxiety. The other factor is the hospital’s environment that does not offer social attachment to the professionals who are called to advance the needs of the patients. Loneliness, therefore, is a critical trigger for the anxiety problem of the caregivers. Lastly is the lack of sleep while in the hospital ward as they take care of their loved ones (Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA), 2022); (Anxiety.org, 2022). These are the critical triggers of anxiety that the caregivers experience as they advance care to their loved ones.
Discussion
Management of the healthcare for the caregivers is an integral factor in determining the overall health of the children they are meant to take care of. Mostly, caregivers are usually concerned with the health condition of their children. As such, it is integral for the professionals to establish a positive approach towards managing their healthcare as a factor for ensuring that the patient’s needs are taken care of in the long run (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015). Anxiety is a critical factor that influences the development of stress that leads to depression. The status of the caregiver who is depressed cannot be able to offer the requisite care to their loved ones. Therefore, it would be critical for the medical professionals to adopt a model of managing the condition to ensure that the overall problems of the caregiver do not degenerate to stress and depression. For instance, when the healthcare professionals decide that the caregivers are not to be allowed for an overnight stay, the objective is to minimize the exposure to the suffering of their loved ones. This is a critical determinant of controlling the possible stress that would arise for the caregivers (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015); (McWhorter, 2020). As such, it becomes critical that the needs of the patient and the caregivers are controlled. Therefore, it is beneficial to have a possible model for controlling these occurrences before they manifest.
Educating the caregivers on the need to avoid stress triggers is an integral approach that would make them have a positive acceptance of the decision by the healthcare professionals on the non-stay decision. Nurses have the obligation of ensuring that they counsel the caregivers over the issue of seeking to offer more care to their loved ones while in the healthcare institution. Through the training and experience they have gained, they would be in a better position to ensure that the needs of the caregivers are controlled effectively (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015). Again, they need to give assurances to the caregivers that the interests of their loved ones are prioritized, and that the institution is seeking to ensure that they offer an effective solution to the medical condition that their loved one is experiencing. These are the integral dimensions of providing care to these individuals to establish effective control of their needs (McWhorter, 2020). The failure to establish this control of caregivers’ activities would be detrimental to the overall outcome of care that is advanced to the patient once they are allowed to receive healthcare services while at home.
Anxiety management models
Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is one of the models for managing the condition. CBT focuses on ensuring that the overall needs of the patient are identified. As such, various tests are to be carried out to establish the cause of the problem that is being experienced. In the case study, the patient is experiencing anxiety because of spending a long time with their loved ones as they receive medical care. Conditioning the caregiver on the coping mechanism, therefore, makes it possible to realize the critical provision for stabilizing the condition (Anxiety.org, 2022); (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015). Again, encouraging the clients to monitor their thoughts to suppress the negative thoughts that cause anxiety would effectively help them have control of their negative advances. These are the integral dimensions of establishing a positive solution to the needs of the caregivers.
Dialectical behavior therapy is the other model for managing the caregivers’ anxiety problem in a hospital setting. The model focuses on the patient’s exposure to the triggers of anxiety as a function of ensuring that they develop in-built ways of managing the problem. The objective of acceptance is the expected result after being subjected to the therapies of DBT within the platform (Anxiety.org, 2022); (Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA), 2022). The adoption of the DBT model is critical in ensuring that the problems of the caregivers are addressed sustainably.
Management of anxiety for patients who have children receiving care in a hospital setup is fundamental for the eventual welfare of the child. The need for controlling anxiety is to prevent the occurrence of stress that leads to depression. Consequently, the responsibility for managing these problems is bestowed on the nurses. As such, the nurse’s actions would be critical in determining the scope of solving the anxiety problems of caregivers. Denying the parents, the overnight stay with their sick loved ones is a crucial model of restraining them for a long duration while experiencing the agony of their loved ones. Incorporation of therapy approaches in the option of counseling the caregivers is ideal for ensuring that the patient is provided with the alternative for solving the problem. These are the ideal ways of managing the problem faced by the caregivers. According to the Mayo Clinic 2020, in order to help manage caregiver stress, one needs to allow others to help with caregiving, focus on the care that one is able to provide, be realistic in the goals that are set, connect with resources available to aid with care, become a part of a support group, look for social support, set personal health goals, and see one’s primary healthcare provider to address symptoms.
Conclusion
Caregivers often deal with anxiety when caring for their loved ones in the hospital setting. Nurses should be able to identify that the caregiver is stressed and offer interventions to help lower the level of anxiety. Nurses are to also reassure the caregiver that the facility is doing everything they can that is in the best interest of the patient. Cognitive-behavior therapy and Dialectical behavior therapy are models put in place to help caregiver cope with their anxiety. Sometimes caregivers become patients as well so their needs sometimes must be addressed as well as the needs of the patient.
References
Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA). (2022). Caregiver Mental Health | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA. Adaa.org. https://adaa.org/find-help/by-demographics/caregivers#Anxiety
Anxiety.org. (2022). Anxiety.org. Anxiety.org. https://www.anxiety.org/treatments
Mayo Clinic, 2020. Caregiver stress: Tips for taking care of yourself. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/caregiver-stress/art-20044784
McWhorter, C. (2020, April 15). Caregivers’ Mental Health: Managing Stress, Anxiety and Depression | CICOA. CICOA. https://cicoa.org/caregivers-mental-health-managing-stress-anxiety-depression/
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2015). Evidence-based practice in nursing and healthcare : a guide to best practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.