Pastoral care Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Pastoral care - Research Paper Example However, it is also a statistically significant disease. Cancer is the second largest annual killer in the United States, second only to heart disease. This paper posits that pastoral care can identify and address the spiritual and emotional needs of the patient, family members, and loved ones. Background Jann Aldredge Clanton's book Counseling People with Cancer sets a major theological theme as hope, and the pastoral task associated with this is to nurture hope through the use of sacred images and stories. This can be done by hearing what is important to the patient and helping the patient put words to their image of Divinity to find comfort during difficult times.1 Counseling the Sick and Terminally III by Gregg Albers is a practical volume written by a physician from an Evangelical Protestant perspective. He discusses the involvement of the whole person in the healing process and the importance of an integrated emotional and spiritual structure. Albers argues that an individual's spiritual maturity can deeply affect emotional and physical healing abilities and emotional reactions are inseparable from physical symptoms. In his experience, he observed in his practice that there are times when emotional reactions to may become more devastating than physical symptoms.2 Albers introduces a unified theory of grief based upon several clinical models of grief reactions and losses, helping others listen for the initial reaction, the shock, denial, and finally the acceptance: He argues that although Kubler-Ross speaks rightly of the positive aspects of hope and its strengthening effects, the Kubler-Ross model does not personalize the hope that can be found in a personal faith.3 Furthermore, patients often experience loss of control, time, bodily functions, body parts, physical attributes, self-esteem, family positions or roles, and income. The degree of loss depends upon the severity and length of the illness.4 Going beyond the Kubler-Ross model, Albers argues that G od can even use these losses to break down psychological defenses. This breaking down of psychological defenses can allow patients to reach out to others for support and build relationships with loved ones. Many studies also demonstrate the value of religious faith at the end of life, and this connection to God or higher power brings strength and helps to sustain individuals living with advanced cancer.5 Some of the more recent work addresses the spiritual needs and resources of the dying patients and their family members. It is helpful to examine a few of these studies. A survey performed by Roberts, Brown, Elkins and Larson at the University of Michigan Medical Center revealed that out of 108 women who described themselves as having some form of fear, 91%feared dependency, 73% feared death, 73 % feared pain and 73% feared loss of control (participants were invited to indicate all fears which applied to them).6 It is interesting to note the primary fear expressed by patients in thi s study was not fear of death, but fear of being dependent on others for care. Another study was conducted by M.F. Highfield at Veterans Administration West-Los Angeles facility which examined the spiritual health of oncology patients through the eyes of the nursing staff.7 Findings from this study indicated that nurses were often ill-equipped to assess

How to Ride a Bike Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

How to Ride a Bike - Essay Example When I started to learn how to ride a bike, I found out that this was not an easy thing to do. What was most instrumental at keeping me away from learning how to ride a bike was the fact that I had seen my neighbor, who was of my age; fall off from the bike and going astray. This was such a bad moment for me that made me realize it could be something that is filled with wrath and destruction. I understood that it would be a gigantic act on my part to make both ends meet, and to finally learn how to ride a bike, which would essentially mean going out of my way and exploring new heights of unattainable proportions. My conditioning was therefore dependent on how the neighbor fell off from the bike and broke her leg. She was hospitalized for a couple of days where she received 10 stitches on her ankle. I felt aggrieved for her and completely disapproved of the kids who rode a bike. I had decided for my own self that this was something that I could not do. However, things changed as I was given confidence by my peers. The learning came about when I realized that I need to ride a bike to enjoy my life’s domains and to get in close company with my friends. I saw that all of them were riding their respective bikes and going from one place to another. So I resolved to learn it in order to move ahead with my life. This helped me create a sense of fear that I was about to undergo something which was unique, completely novel and new for me. The positive reinforcement was in the manner that I could have gained the positives out of the related equations while the negative reinforcement came about with the fear that I had to live with, during the initial stages of the learning process of riding a bike. The positives and negatives had to be balanced with one another so that I could attain success within the relevant ranks. The element of reward and that of the punishment came out in the open for me to understand and contemplate with the passage of time. I realized that if I learnt to ride a bike, it would be a reward in its own right and if I feared as to how I would have done it, it would be a punishment for my entire life because I would then have to remember and recall that I was not ready and willing to take a risk at an important stage in my life, which is indeed the childhood. The mere fact that I would have to be walking while my other friends are riding their bikes is such a feeling that would keep haunting me back and forth, and hence the reward under such realms would be to move one step ahead and learn the basics related with riding a bike. Therefore, reward and punishment are significant pointers for my entirety as I aim to discern how riding a bike would change my respective courses of action and allow me to get a straight on idea with the learning that I will acquire all this while. It is important that a child should know the rewards and punishments before he decides to learn something new, either on his own or through assistance of others.