Health psychology is the field committed to the study of psychological and behavioral processes that deal with how people stay healthy, why they fall ill, and how they respond to illnesses. It also studies the factors that combine to bring about illnesses, how the illness can be prevented or treated as well as how health can be maintained and promoted. It is also concerned with the factors causing diseases. (Benyamini, Johnston, & Karademas, 2015). These factors include that relate to one's behavior like smoking, taking alcohol, how one copes with stress, and lack of exercise as well as those caused by social factors like pollution. Heath is an essential aspect of every individual, and good health should be maintained at all costs.
Professional health psychologists should possess a great passion for learning. This is because learning in this field is a lifelong process due to the continually emerging ideas on therapeutic approaches as well as psychological conditions. Proper continuous training is, therefore, of the essence to the health psychologists. Also, attending seminars, reviewing the past research findings as well as consulting information from colleagues, could improve the efficiency of health psychologists. Second, they should be able to display empathy, which entails identifying and understanding the thoughts, feelings, and emotional state of the patient. To be able to succeed in that, they must listen keenly as well as pay attention to body language and tone of the patient. They must also be able to manage their own emotions as well as restraint from judgment when dealing with patients who have HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (Friedman, 2011).
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To add to that, they must possess the ability to solve problems. In the work experience of Health psychologists, different clients come with different issues, and it is the work of the health psychologists to creatively show the client where there is a difference in terms of the set goal and the misaligned behavior without offering advice (Friedman, 2011). They do so by discussing the goals which the client should set and developing a treatment plan in which to follow to the realization of the set goals. Besides, health psychologists should possess professional ethics, which requires them to be able to set necessary boundaries and adhere to them. They should, for example, not go against the code of ethics which prohibits one to engage in sexual practices or romantic relationships with the clients. Maintaining consultation strictly within the working hours is also in line with work ethics and should be maintained strictly.
Moreover, they should be trustworthy people with the client's c onfidentiality (Benyamini, Johnston, & Karademas, 2015). Before the beginning of every session, the clients should be informed of their rights to confidentiality, which gives them a doorway to open up and share their problems freely
The psychologists should also know about health care and treatment methods that are they should know whether to perform either surgery, radiotherapies, chemotherapy for cancer patients or hormonal therapies depending on the sickness. While dealing with patients, they should be patient in the self-discovery and adjustment of misaligned behaviors seeing that such behaviors can take a long time to be corrected (Hilton & Johnston, 2017). They should encourage and direct the client's/patients behavior towards a certain direction without giving up on them no matter how long it takes. Also, they should show sensitivity to cross culture in that they should be aware of the existing diversity in terms of race, power, and privilege and try to treat all of the above without displaying biases or unfairness (Hilton & Johnston, 2017).
Health psychologists should also be competent with the counseling techniques that are available in the field which include behavioral therapy which entails training on how to relax, exposing one to virtual reality and the techniques of prevention, rehearsing on the expected behavior as well punishment to correct the behavior (Hilton & Johnston, 2017). Other techniques include Cognitive Analytical Therapy, which involves the use of reformulation to teach patients to reflect on themselves and avoid responses that could be collusive. Family therapy helps the family improve communication and relate well with each other as well as gestalt therapy which entails dealing with the existence of a person as a whole (Benyamini, Johnston, & Karademas, 2015). The psychologists should know what each technique entails and the appropriate condition to using each.
Heath care system and patient experience.
The Health care system is the organization in which different people, institutions, and resources come together to offer health care services to meet the needs of the people in a certain society. People apply for health care insurance to cover their medical bills in the hospital with patients with chronic illnesses receiving care from multiple health providers due to the complexity of the care required. The insurance can be public or privately-funded, whereby the majority of the people are covered privately by their employers (Bodenheimer, 2008).
The patient experience includes the efforts of health psychologists to offer proper health care to patients. Other people that offer health care to patients include doctors, nurses, and staff in the hospital as well as other health care facilities. Some health care systems might disappoint by not covering medical bills for the insured patients or by covering a small amount leaving the patient to struggle with the rest. Patients experience can also be positive where they receive supportive services and their fears allayed. Positive patients experience can be achieved through giving them a positive encounter especially in the first impression, practicing patients centered approaches of treatment, giving feedback that is useful and thoughtful and also by following up on the patients to ensure that the recovery is taking place as planned.
HIV/AIDS patients’ experience in the health care system.
HIV/AIDS patients are vulnerable due to the conditions that they are living with. When forming relationships with their healthcare providers, they face the challenge of fear of rejection. They withhold opening up due to fear of being judged or condemned. They feel like the people out there despise them for contracting the disease which causes these patients to hate themselves or resent others. They, therefore, do not offer discrete disclosure with their health care providers due to the stigma they carry around with them. Some of these HIV patients are also dissatisfied with their health care providers. This is because some health care providers do not provide the necessary physical and psychological needs. Love and affection are some of the psychological needs that HIV patients require to accept themselves fully.
When gaining information about their health, the first challenge that HIV patients encounter is denial. Denial is manifested in different ways by different patients. Some react by crying, others by feeling shocked and even others by feeling suicidal. Some patients, as well as seclude themselves from the rest of the people and spend some time alone meditating about their new health condition. After proper guidance and counseling, many begin to accept their state and take medication. Some also join support groups as well as start take counseling sessions in which they gain more information on how they can stay healthy. In these support groups, they strengthen their self-esteem by seeing other patients with the same disease, interacting with them and knowing how they cope with the condition. HIV/AIDS patients also face the challenge of poor awareness where most people, even some health caregivers, do not have expounded information on the disease. Most of their essential questions are, therefore, not answered. There are also few research institutes on the disease in the country, and even some of the existing ones might not have the necessary resources to enable one to research on the topic of HIV/AIDS (Brookmeyer, 2010).
HIV/AIDS patients encounter challenges when adhering to the treatment as a result of the following reasons. One challenge is that some people are enrolled in the care but are unable to be engaged and kept in regular care due to some reasons. It could also be as a result of competing for basic needs where food, clothing, and shelter compete with medical care and most people especially the hand to mouth economy people, may prefer to buy food and clothing than to seek medical attention. To add on that, other comorbidities like the abuse of drugs and illness of the mind may deter one from accessing and acquiring medical care. Finally, lack of insurance, especially private insurance, may hinder one from accessing medical care (Youssef et al., 2016).
Importance of attributes.
The attributes mentioned above are of great importance to every individual who is putting their mind into the health care business. The passion for learning will enable one to acquire information about emerging health issues as well as the different challenges that come with every client. When one consults and learns from others, they will be able to make proper decisions that will aid in helping the patient. The problem-solving skill will enable one to make firm and sound decisions on the matters brought up by the different patients and offer sensible and effective solutions to the problems. It will also help one discover a better and more efficient way of handling other related problems. This will also give confidence to the clients about the skills of the health psychologist hence trusting them. To add to that, being patient with the client's progress will give them the courage to keep trying to achieve the desired behavior. It will also make the patients also to become patient with their progress and motivate them to keep moving. Maintaining professional ethics will ensure good relations between the Health psychologist and the client enhancing maximum services and required aid to the client. When a health psychologist can set and respect boundaries, they ensure the required formal relationship is maintained and upheld hence smooth running of services. Ultimately, the information on counseling techniques will enable one to know the different kinds of counseling techniques and what kind of counseling to give and when it is necessary. These attributes will hence help one become a successful professional since one will be able to balance the kind of effort they put. One will be able to understand their patients on both a personal and professional basis and offer services effectively.
Conclusion
The role of offering health psychology is to ensure that patients are aided in living healthy and wholesome lives. It is, therefore, of necessity to ensure that the services offered are satisfying. When patients are served satisfactorily, they can ask questions about their health and follow the advice and as well keep appointment dares and take medication as instructed. The following ways can be put in place to improve the patient's experience. First, the health psychologists should be empowered to view the experiences from a perspective of design, which will allow them to consult where they are in doubt. They can consult their colleagues, the people working above them or even other random people who might have an idea to solve the problem at hand. This will help them learn and solve the problem at the same time. Secondly, discussions should be encouraged, whereby people of the same department should be allowed to communicate with each other and share ideas and experiences to help them grow. The heads of departments should also be open to give guidance when called upon. To add on that, health psychologists should embrace the idea of consulting with the patient's parents or relatives to gain a history of their condition and come up with ways to help them out. Finally, the health psychologists should uphold the idea of consulting with the people at the front line, that is, nurses, doctors, and technicians who could be having ideas of what works well for patients hence creating a workflow that will help them focus on providing best health care.
References
Benyamini, Y., Johnston, M., & Karademas, E. C. (2015). Assessment in Health Psychology . Boston, MA: Hogrefe Publishing.
Bodenheimer, T., (2008). Coordinating Care — A Perilous Journey through the Health Care System. New England Journal of Medicine , 358 (10), 1064-1071. doi:10.1056/nejmhpr0706165
Brookmeyer, R., (2010). Measuring the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Approaches and Challenges. Epidemiologic Reviews , 32 (1), 26-37. doi:10.1093/epirev/mxq002
Friedman, H. S., (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Health Psychology . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Hilton, C. E., & Johnston, L. H. (2017). Health psychology: It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it. Health Psychology Open , 4 (2), 205510291771491. doi:10.1177/2055102917714910
Youssef, E., Cooper, V., Miners, A., Llewellyn, C., Pollard, A., Lagarde, M., … Fisher, M., (2016). Understanding HIV-positive patients' preferences for healthcare services: a protocol for a discrete choice experiment. BMJ Open , 6 (7), e008549. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008549
