Essay Example: The Concept of Hope in Cancer Patients Explained

Kubler-Ross' model is known popularly as the five phases of grief. This model was based on her research on her terminally ill patients (Griffith, 2014). The patient first experiences denial that he/she is the one diagnosed with the illness. At this point, the world becomes stupendous and has no meaning to them whatsoever. Their response is usually a non-permanent shock to the bad news they have received. The next phase is anger, anger at a higher power such as God, anger at others, and anger at themselves. They look for someone to be blamed for their current illness and ask why they are the ones being subjected to this kind of suffering. This stage is necessary for the healing process since it symbolizes strength and acts as a temporary structure to the triviality of loss. The next phase is the bargaining phase. The patients start to wish that they would go back in time and found cancer sooner rather than later and identify the illness quickly.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The fourth stage in the theory of death and dying is depression. In this stage, the patient experiences a state of acute hopelessness and desolation and the individual anguishes at the remembrance of their mortality. Finally, there is the acceptance phase where the diagnosed individual comes to term with his or her state and even embraces their mortality (Eustache, 2014). Amanda seems to be undergoing the first four stages and has not yet accepted the fact that she is terminally ill. This is affecting her relationship with her family and her personal life as well. She needs to fully acknowledge that she is now a cancer patient so that she can focus on her treatment and making her professional and personal life flow seamlessly as it did before the diagnosis.

Barriers to Psychological Well-Being that Amanda may Experience

One of the obstacles that Amanda may face is pessimism towards her treatment and whether or not she may be able to suppress the disease in the process of her treatment. A decline to the quality of her life may be another factor since most of her family's resources will be directed towards her treatment. Cancer treatments are generally known to be very expensive especially to those people who do not have any form of medical insurance: from the weekly chemotherapy to the prescription drugs. Her quality of life may change due to health-related issues. Cancer takes a toll on individuals, and she may lose the vivaciousness that she had before her diagnosis thus affecting her professional and family life.

Educating Amanda on her Illness and the Impact it may have on her Family

Amanda's spouse will be the most affected since they will have powerstrongful emotions about the condition. Her spouse may be sad because his partner is going through a difficult time as a result of the life-threatening disease and he may also be angry and ask why his wife and mother of his children of all people had to be diagnosed with cancer.

Amanda's children will also be significantly affected since they may not comprehend what is going on with their mother and the implications of cancer.

The concept of Hope in Helping Amanda Cope with her Illness

The feeling of hope is when one has the belief that even though things may seem bleak at the moment (Eustache, 2014), there still is a reason to be optimistic about what the future holds for Amanda and that things will and can get better if that is what she wants.

References

Eustache, C., Jibb, E., & Grossman, M. (2014, September). Exploring hope and healing in patients living with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. In Oncology nursing forum (Vol. 41, No. 5).

Griffith, J. L. (2014). Hope in cancer treatment - Psychiatric Annals, 44(7), 323-325.