CA: Essay (60%)- (Learning objectives 2, 3, 4) Psychological theory and research can contribute greatly to a nurses understanding of a person’s experiences of health, illness and/or disability. Part One (400 words; 25%): Briefly describe 2-3 examples from your practice placement which helped you understand the application of psychology to nursing practice (for example, refer to a case/cases with whom you worked). Part Two (1600 words; 75%): Drawing on examples from your description of placement experiences in part one, discuss how psychology can contribute to a nurses understanding of this patient’s/client’s experiences of health, illness and/or disability. In this section, you should also refer to relevant psychological theories and research

CLINICAL PLACEMENTS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES IN NURSING PRACTICE Name of Student Course Name of Professor University Date Clinical Placements and Psychological Perspectives in Nursing Practice Part One My recent clinical rotation, where I served as a nurse to patients in an inpatient hospital ward, gave me a priceless chance to use psychological knowledge to understand patients’ illnesses better. I discovered that all parts, such as biological factors, nervous system functioning, behavior, and psychosocial factors, can influence an individual’s emotional state, perception, and health improvement by working with the patients Yui and John. This paper will highlight the in-depth reflection on the two most potent cases handled during my nursing clinical clerkship. This piece of writing will explore the role of this particular point in my progress as a nurse who compassionately copes with patients’ realities via psychology theory and research. I recently rotated in the children’s ward and treated individuals who demonstrated the significant influence psychological variables may have on health perception. One of the crucial pieces of evidence concerns Yui, an 11-year-old who tried to end her own life. In addition, she had problems with her mental health. Yui also suffered from profound anxiety, panic attacks, sleeplessness, gloom, and phone addiction. Finally, she exhibited mad phases whose manifestations would include refusal to eat and sometimes outbursts of screams of incomprehensible voices, later followed by sobbing uncontrollably. Since her emotional dysregulation rendered her to loneliness hazardous, a 1:1 worker maintained a 24/7 routine. When her mother was absent, a special employee had to always be with her. I maintained indirect contact with Yui by measuring her vital signs as outlined in the part plan of her treatment managed by one of the nurses. By placing myself in her position, I was able to empathize with her psychological struggles. I witnessed firsthand how profound the repercussions of mental illness can be, even in a child’s life. In the case of John, a 65-year-old man, the hospital admitted him to the cardiac ward following a myocardial infarction. Throughout John’s stay, I noticed that being initially most reclusive and withdrawn, he avoided contact and dialogs with fellow patients and staff members. During his interim stay, our intimate relationship increased, and he shared his severe melancholy and hopelessness following an acute myocardial infarction, unsure of what the future held. Over the week, it seemed to me that John’s ordeal lessened and cleared up since I and other nurses were always there for him and provided the social support needed, including frequent check-ins and reassurances. Evidently, the bandwagon of emotional support, social connection, and inbuilt modes of managing one’s health promoted the patient’s faster recovery process. It made me appreciate the great significance of psychological elements in the healthy state of the human being. Both instances showed that while nurses focus on physical health, paying greater attention to mental health might alter decision-making and perception of the illness. Part Two Yui’s and John’s instances highlight the significant effects psychological theories have on patients’ mental health as they deal with medical concerns. These theories include biological predispositions, cognitive distortions, behavioral reinforcement, gender differences, sickness representations, and stress evaluations. By utilizing biopsychosocial theories and customized therapeutic approaches, nurses may comprehensively handle patients’ subjective experiences. My contacts taught me that psychologically sensitive compassionate care is as critical as medical care. This placement demonstrated how much disease shapes a patient’s sickness trajectory, as do the patient’s perceptions and feelings. Biological Factors Yui’s key point is a keen anxiety and mental health conditions that make genetic and biological factors essential in the development of mental illnesses. According to Shimada-Sugimoto et al. (2015), among anxiety disorders, the genetic component aggregates heritability from 30% to 40%. This finding demonstrates that Yui may have a genetic predisposition or hereditary vulnerability to anxiety, like patients whose parents may exhibit similar cases. Insomnia and panic episodes, which result from sympathetic nervous system hyperarousal, may disrupt the amygdala, which regulates stress. Recent studies show that anxiety patients often have substantial abnormalities in fear circuitry regions of the brain during stress activities and emotion evaluation. Given the underlying biological predisposition and the pressure of the environment that Yui ultimately faced, it seems obvious that her hormonal imbalance could have been one of the reasons for her mental anguish (Shimada-Sugimoto et al., 2015). Knowing the biological foundation of psychiatric problems like anxiety necessitates employing a biopsychosocial model to bridge the gap between general and complex mental health and Yui’s circumstances. Cognitive Factors Yui and other individuals with anxiety disorders’ subjective thought processes and experiences are illuminated further by cognitive models in psychology. Individuals diagnosed with anxiety, according to Wells (2002), tend to think erratically, irrationally magnifying hazards in their surroundings and underestimating their coping capabilities. Possible causes of Yui’s extreme emotional outbursts and breakdowns include cognitive distortions and dysfunctional automatic thoughts, such as “I cannot handle this” or “I will lose control.” Her compulsive phone usage and addiction could potentially be indicative of cognitive processes that dictate a constant need for diversion. Turner (2016) undersc...