mind body connection:Emotional effect of having a serious physical illnes

1Tulip · Nov 8, 2005

Rule #1 with assignments like this: Narrow the topic down.

What patient population? Children? Elderly? Parents with dependent children?

What is a serious illness? Pick one. Breast cancer post mastectomy will have one type of emotional impact because of fear of death and altered body image. OR an illness which is chronic and non-life threatening, but associated with unrelenting pain and limitation (damaged spinal disks, pinched nerves, etc.) will cause physical exhaustion, lack of sleep, inability to work or care for small children...

So, in this way, you might pick one clinical situation and discuss a few of the emotional responses that might be associated with it.

You can narrow your topic in another way:

Pick one common emotional response: Say depression. Then focus on one or two ways it might complicate an illness or a recovery from illness. Finish up your discussion with ways nursing may ameliorate it.

Make sense?

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Nov 9, 2005

Deepak Chopra is a physician with an Indian background (that's the country of India) who has been writing about the mind-body connection in relation to health and healing for some time. I believe that he is currently a regular medical advisor for one of the major TV networks. Anyway, in his very first books he advocated the use of meditation along with western medicine treatments to help patients heal. He talked a lot about how the mind affected what was going on with the body. You might want to look at some of his writings--his older ones.