Importance of Psychology in

Nursing

Aneisha Calvert
Annika Douglas
Kazue Douglas
Melissa Dawkins-Small
Peta-Gaye Duffus
Samantha Cooper
Treshanie Carrington

06/ 10/20
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Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….3

Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………4

Applying Psychology to Nursing:

Importance of Psychology in Nursing

Summary……………………………………………………………………………..…5

Nursing Student Values………………………………………………………………….6

Nursing Students Morals…………………………………………………………….......7-8

Nursing Student Attitudes……………………………………………………………….9

How can Nursing Student Beliefs Affect Interaction with Peers……………………....10-11

How can Nursing Student Beliefs Affect Interaction with Superior…………………...12

How can Nursing Student Beliefs Affect Interaction with Clients/Patients Belief….......13

How can Nursing Student Beliefs Affect Interaction with Visitors…………………......14-15

References…………………………………………………………………………..….16
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Introduction

What is health? Health is the state of physical, social, and mental well-being and not just

absence of disease and infirmity. Therefore it is important for nurses to recognize the role of

intellectual health when dealing with the overall physical well-being of patients. Nurses are

constantly placed in medical setting where psychology elements tend to play an important

role when dealing with certain complication in their daily practice. Hence, many nurses have

turn to psychological principles in order to provide the best possible outcome in patients'

health, communication and daily relationship building. Thus, making it important for nurses

to incorporate psychology alongside their daily requirements to be able to add more dept and

context to the practice and their assessment of patients.

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Acknowledgement

Firstly, we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to God for giving us the strength and

resources to complete this assignment. Additionally, acknowledgement is due to our teacher

for giving us this assignment, it has helped to broaden our knowledge on psychology as it

relates to nursing and has therefore made us better equipped to communicate and assess our

patients hence, assisting us in being able to better go about treating them.

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Applying Psychology to Nursing:

Importance of Psychology in Nursing

Summary

Psychology plays a vital role in patient care, as it facilitates the understanding of

behaviors. It helps nurses to better interact with patients as it relates to various illnesses and

the accompanied pain. Nurses who study psychology are better equipped to deal with patients

of different age and gender. Children need to be relaxed while adults need a listener in order

for effective care management to be carried out. Patient’s evaluation depends on the nurse’s

psychological abilities. This is evident because an optimistic patient will cope better than a

pessimistic patient. Psychological knowledge will make dealing with angry or hopeless

minded patients, hence resulting in happy nurses and patients. Care plans for patients depend

on their physical and mental state. Some patients may lose interest in daily activities or

recovery and it’s the nurse’s job to first observe the signs and try to solve the matter in an

able manner. Otherwise, patients’ condition may and can deteriorate. Psychology training

teaches nurses to be encouraging, understanding, observant, and supportive and to

strategically be able to prompt patients in an interest to perform necessities that will facilitate

better health and an overall speedy recovery. In concluding nurses and psychology make a

great team. Together they ensure that positive, efficient and effective care giving is being

displayed at all times, and it makes good care giver and patient’s relationship.
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Nursing Student Values

Values can be described as one set of personal belief attitude about the truth beauty and

worth of any thought object are behavior. Values are action orientated and give direction and

meaning to one’s life.

Values of nursing student of change considerably by curricula the importance of nursing

values are internalize this Help Nursing student at value the standard practice and guide their

behavior valve can be taught modify and promote directly or indirectly through education

each student entering the nursing school with a set of value that made be change during the

socialization process.

Purposeful integration of professional values in nursing education is essential to guarantee

the future of nursing students. Student acquire personal value initially through the teaching

after school educator and the socialization with others values of a nursing student indicate

high awareness and perception of the importance of professional values from the student

perspective.

The most important values of a nursing student is the maintaining confidentiality of

patient safe guarding patient right to privacy responsibility for meeting any of the cultural

diverse population and maintaining competency in area of practice. Since some of these

values are associated with the direct care of patient and given that student complete their

clinical practice under the supervision of nurses, Students may learn the importance of value

is true role modelling an application in clinical setting.

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Nursing Students Morals

Generally, in nursing life tends to bestow unexpected circumstances which we have to

respond to. Addressing these issues is dependent on our values and morals. Many times, these

issues are principle, care, ethics and being reasonable. On numerous attempts philosophers

made every effort to organize each issue. Students who are preregistered faces challenges

with their values. Situations that are foreign to them needs to be carefully decided as this can

be very objective to their beliefs. As a nurse and a mid-wife, you are required to provide

healthcare that’s not discriminating. You have to be responsible, accountable and attentive in

order to relate to personal and professional values.

The first subject that appears from an interview is moral characteristics. Combination

features of moral characteristics are compassion, innovative, purist, integrity and

understanding. Attributes of characteristics depends on one’s culture, religion and genetics

which enables knowledge of limitations, managing difficult positions and building a relation

through trust and respect. Another subject is moral decision-making. This is based on

statements which includes moral sensitivity, moral thinking, moral reasoning and moral

courage. Making decision based on morals are thoughts and principles which are

accomplished with critical reasoning that focuses on goals and intentions which helps with

the results in the decision.

  Moral sensitivity commits to values and conscience. It helps to realize moral conflicts to

understand and describe an individual being vulnerable to enable perceptions that results in

the moral of decision- making. Moral thinking involves education and efforts to learn.

Contemplating social issues and values helps to remove the path of what is required to

analyse efforts to learn. Moral reasoning is to execute judgments towards behaviors that are

negative and includes rational abilities. Moral courage means resisting the rights that requires

persistence and dedication of virtue despite the threat towards the nursing position.
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Nursing Student Attitudes

Attitudes are crucial importance in nursing. Attitudes helps us to understand how people

perceive issues and processes in care and determine what they deem importantly good,

relevant and appropriate. We should understand attitudes of we are to collaborative, patient-

centred care, however they poorly understood. The job off nurses is not an easy one. working

in today’s healthcare environment can be chaotic and stressful therefore, it is even more

important that everyone working in healthcare have emotional intelligence. Emotional

intelligence is often referred to us ability to recognize and manage your emotions and

emotions of others. We need to remind ourselves and our colleagues of our profession’s core

values and or professional behaviors and that our attitude does matter.
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How Nursing Student Beliefs Affect Interaction with Peers

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary ‘peer’ may be defined as “one that is of

equal standing with another” or, “one belonging to the same societal group especially based

on age, grade or status”.

The nursing student belief (values, morals, attitudes) can affect the interaction process

with their peers in a positive and negative way. The interaction is based on the student’s

upbringing and how much tolerance they have for compromise. It is very important that

nursing students learn the importance of respecting other people’s belief. The fact that

nursing students are in constant interaction with their peers, means that respect is a necessity

for a welcoming environment, healthy relationships, effectiveness, efficiency and finally a

good display of interpersonal skills.

Peer interaction with the nursing student’s belief can be viewed as a means of educating

each other. It facilitates the sharing of belief’s, hence, increasing knowledge to each other and

it promotes better understanding. Student nurses must be able to put their belief aside to

provide quality care for patients and better the standards for the institution. Another positive

impact would be the display of unity which is very important in the eyes of the public. An

example would be in the case of a Seventh Day Adventist students having lunch with a

colleague who is eating a pork dish. Another example is a Jehovah Witness student nurse

holding hands and supporting a colleague who is undergoing blood transfusion.

Negative effect is the recipe for a very uncomfortable and non-progress work

environment. It is at this stage that one student will refuse to respect the other person’s belief

and work place conflicts are normally developed. Life is about balance; respect goes both

ways. One common negative example is when racism is present. Student A is white while

student B is black, they should be doing a procedure however, one student refuses to work

with the other. In the end the patient was poorly treated, expose to bad work ethics,
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experience discomfort as care givers display bad behavior in their presence. Such actions can

result in patient’s condition getting worse or even death due to negligence, and the care givers

facing lawsuits or loss of job.

The acronym T.E.A.M stands for Together Everyone Achieve More. As student nurses

our main goal is to care for the sick, to educate and promote health in our patients, and to

observe, assess and treat accordingly. Factors such as beliefs should not negatively affect

how we interact with our peers.

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How can Nursing Student Beliefs Affect Interaction with Superior

As a nursing student, we are all expected to act a certain way especially towards our
superiors. However, our beliefs such as our values, moral and attitude can interfere with how
we interact with our superiors. Nursing students who interact with their superior everyday can
sometimes clash as different individuals have different beliefs and this clash can form
strained
relationships between these individuals. For you to be an individual who has certain
principles,
for you, as nursing students to do otherwise when told by superiors will create conflict
whether
be it within one self or one between the superior and inferior. This therefore resulting in
serious
repercussions and this could create an uncomfortable work environment and this can affect
the
behavior of the nursing student as this can also affect how they work.
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How can Nursing Student Beliefs Affect Interaction with Clients/Patients

Belief is a very powerful component of human nature similarly to everything in life, there

is a negative and a positive side. Depending on how it is looked at or dealt with. As nursing

students, we are constantly placed in a situation where we will come in contact with people of

different racial and social backgrounds. Our morals, values, and attitudes will come in

question every day of careers.

When we greet a client/patient our attitude, and attire makes the first impression, just a

smile or a kind word will go a far way in how a patient will relate their signs and symptoms

to us. Believing that greeting a person in a friendly manner will help us to accomplish a

smoother transition between ourselves and a patient will do a lot of good. Even if it may not

seem appreciated at the time.

In today's society, our health care system is one of chaos with, long waiting periods it is

likely that patients begin to feel neglected, so by the time a patient comes in contact with us

they may have already had a feeling of frustration and have already formulated an idea of the

establishment and us along with it. That's when our values and the principles we believe and

have invested in our goals towards which we aspire are put to the test. Do we meet this

patient with the same energy or do we tap in our values? Doing all we can to apologize for

the long wait and try to get the patient clam and comfortable to confide in us. It is important

for one to understand one's values because it is influential in determining and motivating our

behavior. Good value equal attitude good moral which will result in a good outcome when

dealing with patients/ clients.

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How can Nursing Student Beliefs Affect Interaction with Visitors

A nursing student’s beliefs steam from their background and how the different

environmental factor affects thought process throughout the course of their life, for each

person’s belief comes from what they see, hear and learn.

Admission to a hospital can be a very stressful experience for the love ones of the patients,

that’s why it is vital for the student nurse to display the right attitudes and thinking when

dealing with these visitors. The student nurse’s response towards the visitor depends upon

that person’s emotional state and how they view the patient. And the visitor’s belief depends

upon their family status, religion, education level and the relationship they have with the

patient. That is why the student nurse’s attitude towards the visitor must be one of respect in

regards to their different background. This can sometime get out of hand in instances where

the student nurse’s beliefs contradict the visitor’s beliefs, as such this can lead to behavioral

pattern from the visitor or even the student nurse to be insulting to the next party which can

lead to a great misunderstanding or even mistreatment to one of the party involved. In other

causes where the patient condition affects the visitor, it is the student nurse duty to show a

level of concern e of the visitors is to support the patient, ease their anxiety, reduce stress and help

with a speedy recovery.

Through every decision a student nurse makes is based upon their beliefs they held,

because of this they most have a professional outlook with each visitor. Hence, it is the

student nurse’s job not to fallow pray to their own beliefs and understanding, but to have an

open mind to each individual with the right attitude.

Thus, the beliefs of a student nurse are crucial. They help to understand and perceive the

visitor’s emotions towards the patient in care, as well as, it shapes the visitor’s perception of

the health care organization.

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References

Ethnical competence in nursing practice (n.d.). Retrieved October 06, 2020 from 

http:/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

J. Orford, 20 February 2012,Independent nursing investment (n.d.). Retrieved October 06, 

2020 from http:/www.independent nurse co.uk/

Retrieved October 06, 2020 from http:/www.medwelljournals.com/

Retrieved October 06, 2020 from http:/www.jstor.org/

Retrieved October 06 2020 from https://Merriam-Websters Dictionary.com/

Retrieved October 06, 2020 fromhttps://www.Mentalhelp.net/