The discipline of health psychology has developed from the recognition that psychological processes can be used to facilitate health and wellness. The main focus of health psychology has been to provide a bio-psychosocial approach towards understanding health and illness. Health psychologists thus have to consider the range of psychological, biological, and social factors that can affect one’s wellness. The work of a health psychologist is thus different from that of clinical psychologist that would deal mainly with mental issues. This paper analyzes some of attributes of competent psychologists, the challenges of breast cancer patients, and how the attributes of competent psychologists can be used to help them in their treatment.
Attributes of Competent Health Psychologists
The attributes required to become a competent health psychologist is different from that of normal psychologists that are used to working and training in traditional mental health settings. Health psychologists have to work in a medical culture and practice that focuses on primary care (Nash et al., 2013). In primary care, the role of the psychologist can go beyond the direct patient care and can include significant contributes to practice operations. Apart from simply providing psychological services, health psychologists may be required to be involved in the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of the patient. Health psychologists may thus require specific competencies in order to be successful in their field.
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Counseling Techniques
Health psychologists should make use of quality and evidence-based counseling techniques. One of the counseling techniques that can be used by health psychologists is the psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapies. This is a counseling technique which focuses on the behaviors, thoughts, and feelings through uncovering their unconscious motivations and meanings. Psychoanalytic therapy has been established to be associated with having longer-lasting effects for patients experiencing depression as a result of problems with their health (Huber et al., 2013). Other types of therapy approaches that can be applied include behavior therapy and humanistic therapy. Behavior therapy focuses on learning roles in developing normal behaviors while humanistic therapy emphasizes on the ability of people to make rational decisions in order to maximize their potential.
Personal Characteristics
The health psychologists may be required to work in a medical facility and deal primarily with various health issues of the patients. The key characteristics of health psychologists would include showing empathy, being non-judgmental, being confident, and having excellent communication skills. Empathy would be required to show the patient that one understands the patients suffering throughout the complications. Empathy involves putting oneself on the patient’s shoes and seeing the world through their eyes. Health psychologists are required to be non-judgmental throughout the actions, beliefs, and statements. One should also be able to show the patient that they are confident in their abilities. This would involve presenting oneself with dignity and integrity. Excellent communication skills are also required as one should have the ability to listen to their patients with compassion and understand them. Communication would also involve having the ability to pay attention to nonverbal cues from the patient.
Professional Ethics
Professional ethics involves adhering to specific ethical principles that should guide the health psychologists. The health psychologist should be able to understand the four basic principles that are applied in medical ethics. These four principles include autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Autonomy involves the patient having the right to control what happens to their bodies while beneficence involves striving to improve the patient’s health. Non-maleficence involves doing no harm while justice involves being fair when offering treatments to patients.
Knowledge of Health Care
A competent psychologist should also have adequate knowledge of healthcare. The knowledge should involve scientific knowledge that can be applied in healthcare. One should then be ready to apply the scientific knowledge towards various components of psychology such as biological, sociological, behavioral, and cognitive methods. This will involve an evidence-based approach in health which can improve the overall care of patients.
Treatment Methods
The health psychologists should also be involved in the treatment process of patients. The treatment process involves understanding behavioral and contextual factor for the causes health and illness. By understanding this, the psychologist should be ready to assist the patient throughout the process of treatment. The health psychologist should also assist the patient to improve on their adherence to medical advice. Various pain management strategies that can be used to advice the patient is also an important knowledge.
Experience of a Breast Cancer Patient in the Health Care System
Breast cancer patients in the health care system go through a series of processes and procedures before the final treatment. The first visit involves the evaluation of the breast cancer by a nurse who then determines the necessary tests. Various meetings in the week that follows involve medical oncologists, pathologists, nurses, radiotherapists, surgeons, and psychologists. In case the breast cancer is at an advanced stage, the meetings can be held later and chemotherapy can begin shortly. The patients can then go through surgical treatment, systemic treatment, radiation therapy, and a follow-up treatment (Kaliks et al., 2013). There can be different processes used throughout the treatment and this can result in significant financial costs for the patient.
The psychological experience of the patient throughout the treatment should also be considered. The patient can experience cancer-related fatigue and have several symptoms such as pain, sleep problems, and mood disorders. They can experience psychological and social problems like feeling sad, anxiety, depression, anger, and feelings of hopelessness (Kırca, & Kutlutürkan, 2018). Chemotherapy can also have significant side effects of the patient. Their body image, sexual satisfaction, and future expectancy score can decrease with chemotherapy (Kırca, & Kutlutürkan, 2018). These challenges can affect the experience of the patient throughout the health care system. They can find it frustrating and tiring. This creates the need for health psychologists to be able to be actively involved with the patient as they go through various stages of treatment.
Challenges of Breast Cancer Patients
The incidences of breast cancer have been on a rising trend throughout the world. Breast cancer has become the most frequently diagnosed form of cancer and the leading cause of cancerous death for women. However, there has been a combined fight for the illness and the result is that the mortality as a result of breast cancer has been on the decline. This has been due to a combined effort of screening, increased awareness, early diagnosis, and an improvement in treatment. While there have been improvements in breast cancer treatment, there are still several challenges that women with breast cancer face.
Forming Relationships With Their Healthcare Providers
Women with breast cancer can face communication challenges with hinders their ability to form proper relationships with their health care providers. Khoshnazar et al. (2016) identified that when communicative needs of the patient were not met, it led to poor care for the patient. Some of the challenges that were faced by the patients included adequate facilitation of empathy and formulating trust with the therapist. Patients that went through breast cancer at times felt that the health care practitioner did not fully understand their situation and could not thus be empathetic enough. The result was that it became difficult to form adequate trust between the health care provider and the patient.
Navigating the Health Care System
Navigating through the health care system was also challenging as there were a series of procedures and processes that the patient had to go through before their final recovery. For instance, before going for the actual therapy, the patient had to go through various other professionals such as radiologists and carry out multiple tests. The health care costs for breast cancer treatment can be quite high and this can result in significant burden on the patient. Patients that did not have adequate health insurance particularly faced significant challenges with health care costs. Navigating the health care system can thus be challenging because of the systemic and economic factors.
Gaining Information About Their Health
The seriousness when dealing with breast cancer or any other forms of cancer means that the patient should continually gain adequate information about their health. However, this is always not the case. Breast cancer patients face the challenge of having to talk to the doctor frequently in order to be informed about their health and improvement. Additionally, information about the progress of patients when dealing with breast cancer may involve several terms and jargons which the patient may find difficult to understand. The result is that the patient has little information about their health and progress even when going through chemotherapy.
Adhering to treatment
Even though breast cancer is a life-threatening diagnosis, patients may still not adhere to the medication. This can present a missed opportunity for gaining health and could result in wastage of resources. Non-adherence has been found to be as a result of the patient, the nature of treatment, and healthcare provider (Makubate et al., 2013). Some of the reasons for non-adherence were lack of accessibility to the medication, not being able to understand the directions, and not taking the medications on time. Poor adherence to oral chemotherapy medications have been associated with negative outcomes for the patient, increased healthcare costs, and increased toxicity of the medication.
Importance of the Given Attributes
The attributes can be important as they can assist one in becoming a successful in the practice of health psychology. One of the important aspects of the attributes is that it enables one to have better communication skills both verbal and non-verbal. This can be used to create a better rapport and relationship with the patient. After having an effective communication, one can then apply the scientific knowledge regarding various treatment methods to help the patient. Effective counseling methods can be used through the application of the different counseling techniques.
The attributes are also important to enable one to become a successful professional as it enables one to abide by the ethical and legal standards of health and psychology. Abiding by these standards ensures that one’s practice will be beneficial to the patient and that the patient is respected and their needs are met. This can prevent one from undertaking certain actions that could possibly result in a lawsuit. Additionally, the characteristics are based on one’s personal characteristics. The specific characteristic of empathy will be especially applicable for patients that are undergoing challenges with breast cancer. Breast cancer patients can go through a lot of pain and fatigue and having a personality of being able to show empathy should provide healing and comfort to the patient.
Recommendations for Health Psychologists to Improve Patient Experience
From the analysis, it emerged that patients with breast cancer can face several issues with the healthcare system and even with their personal recovery. One of the approaches that can be used by health psychologist is to make use of group interventions. The group intervention could involve having patients that have had a past experience and recovery being put together with the patients that are going through treatment. The health psychologist can then be in charge on the discussion and ensure that various challenges regarding breast cancer treatment are discussed. The group could discuss the best treatment approaches and challenges with various treatment. It could also discuss the challenges with the health care system and how different individuals were able to overcome those challenges. Cerezo et al. (2014) investigated the impact of group intervention on women with breast cancer. The study reported that women experienced an improvement in their resilience, optimism, self-esteem, and knowledge regarding how to handle various issues related to breast cancer.
The health psychologist can also help the patients learn how to cope with the changes in their lifestyle, emotional, and physical wellbeing as a result of the cancer. The form of assistance that the health psychologist can provide can vary. It may involve explaining to their children and partner the diagnosis with breast cancer or helping them find the right medical treatment and hospital. Other forms of assistance could involve providing a supportive environment where the psychologist can help women work through their fear, grief, and emotions.
Conclusion
Health psychologists are different from conventional psychologists as they have to assist the patient in managing their illnesses. There are specific attributes that health psychologists are required to have. Some of the attributes could include personal traits like empathy and communication skills. Additionally, the health psychology should be knowledgeable regarding various treatment methods. The given case study involved an analysis of a patients with breast cancer by considering the challenges they could face with the health care system and the treatment. The interaction with the health psychologists can be used to assist and solve some of the problems that the patients face.
References
Cerezo, M. V., Ortiz-Tallo, M., Cardenal, V., & de la Torre-Luque, A. (2014). Positive psychology group intervention for breast cancer patients: a randomised trial. Psychological reports, 115(1), 44-64.
Huber, D., Henrich, G., Clarkin, J., & Klug, G. (2013). Psychoanalytic versus psychodynamic therapy for depression: A three-year follow-up study. Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes, 76(2), 132-149.
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Kırca, K., & Kutlutürkan, S. (2018). Symptoms Experience and Quality of Life in The Patients With Breast Cancer Receiving The Taxane Class of Drugs. European journal of breast health, 14(3), 148.
Khoshnazar, T. A. K., Rassouli, M., Akbari, M. E., Lotfi-Kashani, F., Momenzadeh, S., Rejeh, N., & Mohseny, M. (2016). Communication needs of patients with breast cancer: A qualitative study. Indian journal of palliative care, 22(4), 402.
Makubate, B., Donnan, P. T., Dewar, J. A., Thompson, A. M., & McCowan, C. (2013). Cohort study of adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy, breast cancer recurrence and mortality. British journal of cancer, 108(7), 1515.
Nash, J. M., Khatri, P., Cubic, B. A., & Baird, M. A. (2013). Essential competencies for psychologists in patient centered medical homes. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 44(5), 331.
