Introduction
Patient education is an essential factor in the health progress of a patient. According to Paterick et al. (2017), patient education is one form of interaction between the patients and the health care professionals that is encouraged. This essay discusses patient education and how it is related to other factors, including psychosocial factors, personality styles, adjustments to illness, and the role of the family in patient education and influence to the patient’s compliance.
Psychosocial Factors affecting health Care Workers and their impacts on Patient Education
Psychosocial factors have a significant impact on the delivery of quality medical care to the patient. Kumar et al. (2018) include stress, hostility, depression, hopelessness, and challenges in job control as the main psychosocial factors affecting health care workers. Another study by Asante et al. (2019) found that health workers affected by stress, burnout, and other psychosocial factors perform poorly in their interaction with the patient. Patient education is therefore negatively impacted when health workers are affected by psychosocial factors.
Psychosocial Factors affecting Patients and their Impact on Patient Education
The patient’s recovery and progress are dependent on psychosocial factors. Positive factors, including coping ability, high self-esteem, and the feeling of coherence, assist the patient’s recovery (Thomas et al., 2020). Negative psychosocial factors including exhaustion, depressiveness, hopelessness, and hostility lead to negative implications on the patient’s health progress. Therefore the patient education is impacted negatively by hostility, depressiveness, hostility, and hopelessness.
Personality Styles and Approaches to help the Patients
Five personality traits affect patient decision-making and participation in health care. According to Borgen (2020), the patient personality traits are agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, extroversion, and neuroticism. Patients with neuroticism traits are depressive and moody, and therefore they find it complicated to participate in health or make crucial decisions. Conscientious patients, on the other hand, are considered to be self-disciplined and make decisions responsibly. The individual with the openness trait is also an active participant in health care decision-making. Agreeable patients are easily cooperative, while extroverts participate more than introverts in the decision-making.
Steps in Adjustment to Illness and how Patients Copes with each Step
Patients, especially the ones suffering from chronic diseases, go through five steps of adjustment. According to Dekker and de Groot (2018), the first step to adjustment is denial. The patients do not believe that they are ill. Then anger follows where the patient will start questioning why they have become sick, and they can blame anyone or anything for their condition. Then there is the bargaining step, where the patients try to revert their conditions. At this stage, the patients even seek divine assistance to help them revert their situation. Then they fall into a depression where they feel sad and lonely. Eventually, the patient accepts their condition and resolves to cure as an adaptation method to live with their situation.
Health Professional Role in Teaching of Patients at Different Stages
The different stages of the patient are classified into child and adolescent phase, young and middle-aged adulthood, and old age. At all these levels, health professionals are required to educate the patient about healthy living. At the toddler level, the health care professional deals with the patients’ guardians, who are educated on promoting the baby’s health.
The Role played by Family in Patient Education
Family members are the supporting pillar of the patient, and they offer psychological and material support. The family can educate the patient on healthy living, and they can also be educated by the health care professionals on how to take care of their patient (Jazieh et al., 2020). The family members are also consulted while making the patient decision, and in case the patient is in critical condition, their acceptance of patient treatment is considered legitimate.
How Family Influence Compliance of the Patient and Measures Health Care Professionals use in Communication with the family
The quality of health care offered to a patient is also affected by the patient compliance with the regulations, guidelines, and method of treatment. According to Yaner et al. (2019), patients’ family members encourage the patients to adhere to medications and follow the health professional advice. While communicating with the patient’s family members, Caswel et al. (2015) health care are advised to remain optimistic while communicating with the family. They should uphold high communication skills and should avoid being abusive, coercive, or non-supportive to the family members.
Conclusion
In conclusion, patient education is an essential factor in the health progress of a patient. However, negative psychosocial factors, including threat, low self-esteem, stress, other factors affecting both the health care professional and the patient, can affect effective patient education.
References
Asante, J. O., Li, M. J., Liao, J., Huang, Y. X., & Hao, Y. T. (2019). The relationship between psychosocial risk factors, burnout and quality of life among primary healthcare workers in rural Guangdong province: A cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1-10. Web.
Borgen, D. (2020). Personality and Healthcare Decision-Making. VSJournal, 3 (11), 5. Web.
Caswell, G., Pollock, K., Harwood, R., & Porock, D. (2015). Communication between family carers and health professionals about end-of-life care for older people in the acute hospital setting: a qualitative study. BMC palliative care, 14(1), 1-14. Web.
Dekker, J., & de Groot, V. (2018). Psychological adjustment to chronic disease and Rehabilitation an exploration. Disability and Rehabilitation, 40(1), 116-120. Web.
Jazieh, A. R., Volker, S., & Taher, S. (2018). Involving the family inpatient care: A culturally tailored communication model. Global Journal on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, 1(2), 33-37. Web.
Kumar, A., Bhat, P. S., & Ryali, S. (2018). Study of quality of life among health workers and psychosocial factors influencing it. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 27(1), 96-102. Web.
Paterick, T. E., Patel, N., Tajik, A. J., & Chandrasekaran, K. (2017). Improving health outcomes through patient education and partnerships with patients. In Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings. 30 (1), 112-113. Web.
Thomas, K., Nilsson, E., Festin, K., Henriksson, P., Lowén, M., Löf, M., & Kristenson, M. (2020). Associations of psychosocial factors with multiple health behaviors: A population-based study of middle-aged men and women. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(4), 1239. Web.
Yaner, N. R., Sukartini, T., Kristiawati, M. M., & Maulana, M. R. (2019). Family Support Required to Increase Compliance of Medical Control of Patients with Cancers. J. Ners, 14(3), 331-5. Web.