Loneliness In The Nursing Field: A Case Study

Introduction There are many opportunities to meet a variety of patients with different situations and backgrounds within the nursing field. A nurse may have to deal with emotions such as abuse, anger, dignity, grief, hope and loss all of which connect to the concept of loneliness. When in the hospital patients may often feel lonely due to the lack of social interaction and isolation. In this paper, the concept of loneliness will be related to professional nursing care and further explored within the specific situation.
Scenario
As a nursing student in second year, there is an opportunity to work in the hospital. The writer was placed at a orthopaedic surgical placement at Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton. This is where the writer met the patient, the patient was not the writers patient but the writer was in the same room as the patient. The patient was an older Italian lady, who did not speak any english and seemed quite upset. When the writer was in the room giving another patient scheduled medication, the patient kept leaving the bed which the patient should not being
Some of these causes include lack or loss of a significant relationship, a relationship that could be lacking in quantity or quality, social isolation, depression, and fear of dependency. Fear of dependency includes counting on someone to help with activities of daily living like bathing, dressing and using the bathroom. Often when people are facing different challenges in life like changes in mental, physical health, and the loss of someone can lead to the person feeling socially isolated which can lead to feelings of loneliness. Loneliness has been found to lead to other health consequences like depression, low self-esteem, suicide, alcohol, drug abuse, poor immune system and physical health problems (ElSadr et al., 2009). These are just some of the many consequences that loneliness may