Consumer Interaction And Narratives Reflection

Customer Interaction and Narratives Reflection

[Name of the Student:]

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Customer Interaction and Narratives Reflection

Introduction

The narrative theories help the nurses to understand the cases in-depth and prepare them to enhance their experiences regarding the practice. These theories allow nurses to consider the consumer's history and narrative to apply it to resolving the problem. The nursing practice today needs to resolve a clinical situation efficiently by combining theory and practice to produce useful knowledge. This paper has been produced by using ‘Borton’s framework for reflections: what? So what? Now what?’ to understand and resolve a specific clinical situation.

What?

The consumer or patient whose journey is under discussion, suffers from Quadriplegia. The consumer introduced himself as a thirty-year-old man who is single, working at an IT company as a Systems Analyst, and lives alone in the city (personal communication, October 19, 2019). The consumer had a severe roadside accident after which he was brought to the special care unit of the hospital seven days ago. He was operated by qualified surgeons and was fortunate to be alive. The doctors were hopeful regarding his recovery. He was diagnosed with Quadriplegia by the doctors after they finished the surgery. For two days, the consumer was given anesthetic medicine (analgesics) so that he may recover from the after-effects of surgery. He was not able to move his lower limbs at all when he was brought to consciousness (Davis & Davis, 2018). The treatment for Quadriplegia was started as soon as he was diagnosed with the disease. Since the disease requires extensive treatment that may range up to several months, the patient was shifted to the general ward three days after the surgery was done.

The consumer stated, responding to a query, that he had been driving his car without having a proper sleep the previous night; he was engaged in a phone call, therefore, he could not focus on driving for just a few seconds when it all happened (personal communication, October 19, 2019). He was badly injured during the accident and the cause of Quadriplegia has been established to be a severe injury to the spinal cord of the consumer. Besides this, the consumer also received other injuries in the accident. Quadriplegia can be caused by many other reasons as well, such as falling from a certain height, being a victim of violence, experiencing mishaps during sports, or rarely by being subjected to a distorted spinal surgery (Luthra & Prabhakar, 2016). The adverse effects of the disease may cause inability to move the related parts of the body depending on the location of injury. Since the spinal cord is responsible for movements of most of the body parts, the area of injury is crucial in determining the resulting inabilities or changes in normal functionality of certain organs. The patient under treatment has acquired disability of moving the lower limbs of his body. He reported that he did not feel any stimuli in his lower limbs; he feels like the lower part of his body is not existing at all (personal communication, October 19, 2019).

The consumer is not willing to stay for a long time in the hospital. He remarked before the nurse, “My personal life has been disturbed altogether, and my ambitions will remain unpursued in case I never be able to move my body in a normal way (personal communication, October 21, 2019).”

So What?

The consumer exclaimed, “I supposed I’d pursue a higher degree in the coming couple of years. I have already applied to a few institutions for further education. This incident has changed my life altogether. I am left with no hope (personal communication, October 23, 2019). The consumer has been deeply moved by this accident. His ideas seem unattainable to him. His job requirements are dynamically challenging. He must demonstrate exquisite physical activity for accomplishing the job tasks. The psychological effects of this incident are adverse to the consumer's mind. His health is also vulnerable to several diseases. He said that he had been feeling difficulty in breathing. It is a painful experience for him (personal communication, October 21, 2019). The consumer is in critical condition, as many dilemmas have surrounded him. His life has been disturbed in every aspect.

The narrative theory applied to this case reveals many facts about the person’s story. The narrative or story theory helps to understand the clinical situation through intentional nurse-person dialogues connecting with self-in-relation to create ease (Wang & Geale, 2015). The consumer is not ready to confront this situation of “complicating health challenge”. His life has become miserable suddenly. The breathing trouble has become intense with time. He cannot sleep well; his body is restless. “I cannot think of myself to be in this disastrous situation. My heart faints; my life is pitiable. I am restless,” narrated the consumer (personal communication, October 24, 2019). This is the last thing that the consumer has spoken of. It summarizes his experiences and sufferings. The nurse has been struggling for “moving toward resolving and recovery” so that the consumer’s sufferings can be reduced to a satisfactory extent. During each nurse-person communication, a few motivating and inspiring comments have been given to the consumer to nurture his hope. “You have proved yourself to be an amazing person since you are here. All you need to do is to have faith in yourself and keep up your determination,” the nurse exclaimed (personal communication, October 24, 2019). The efforts are made aggressively to rehabilitate the consumer as soon as possible. This is because the expectation of the patient’s recovery in case of Quadriplegia is most likely to occur within the first six months after the accident. It is evident from the consumer’s situation that the health challenge has grown very complicated. Quadriplegia coupled with symptoms of Pneumonia have created serious concerns regarding the consumer’s health.

Now What?

The interaction with the consumer gives plenty of insight into the nursing practice. The consumer is expressive of his feelings and problems. The nurse can get adequate information on the clinical situation. The nurse has to use the knowledge gained during the education period as well as prior professional experience for understanding the issue in depth. The nursing practice involved need to develop knowledge relevant to the case based on a combination of theory and practice. “I feel my backbone to cling with my bed; I am not in a position to change the view in front of my eyes. I am fed up with this condition of mine. I am paralyzed. My heart sinks…” exclaimed the consumer in the very first interaction with the nurse (personal communication, October 19, 2019). This had an impact on the mind of the nurse. The nurse took it as a challenge to deal with this clinical situation competently. The narrative theories of nursing practice were explored and applied to the case to improve the consumer’s rehabilitation process. It has been understood in context of the three narrative theory concepts that the consumer needs immediate physical therapy as well as psychological treatment to cope with the painful condition he has been subjected to (Lee, Fawcett, & DeMarco, 2016). “You will regain your stance and the power to assert yourself in a normal way. You have to cooperate with the nursing staff for quick recovery. We are here to attend all your needs”, the nurse motivated the consumer (personal communication, October 22, 2019).

There was ample experience to gain in this case. The consumer demonstrates several issues related to his health. The major concern for the doctors is his breathing difficulty. Since the injury affected spinal cord, it could cause the connection of brain with the diaphragm weakened or lost that has an important role in completing the breathing process. Another possibility in this case for experiencing difficulty in breathing is that the consumer’s chest muscles are not strong enough to assist in convenient breathing (Singh, Khullar, Garg, & Vardani, 2019). The doctor has suggested specific physical therapy to help the consumer get rid of the breathing problem. Further, the consumer is considerably under emotional stress. The narrative theory suggests that the patient’s post-accident experiences and ambitions should be incorporated into the clinical treatment for making the rehabilitation process more effective. He claimed during one of the nurse-consumer interactions that he had been a popular athlete in school, and had to leave it for pursuing his higher education goals.

Conclusion

The consumer’s clinical condition represents a serious case of Quadriplegia, where the major concern of treatment is to reduce his difficulty in breathing. Another serious concern is the emotional distress of the consumer that will ultimately suppress his determination. Without determination, the consumer will never be able to recover from the injuries and move normally. The narrative theories implemented in the situation help to understand the situation and increases the pace of rehabilitation process. The nurse-consumer interactions provide the story of the patient and his journey through the different phases toward recovery. The patient has been in periodic interactions with the nurse for not more than five days, and the recovery process, in this case, is longer than others'. Therefore, the narratives of the consumer have not developed enough to indicate the movement toward rehabilitation to a notable extent.

Works Cited

Davis, L., & Davis, S. (2018). Accidental Events: Regenerative Medicine, Quadriplegia, and Life’s Journey. In Global Perspectives on Stem Cell Technologies (pp. 183–193). Springer.

Lee, H., Fawcett, J., & DeMarco, R. (2016). Storytelling/narrative theory to address health communication with minority populations. Applied Nursing Research, 30, 58–60.

Luthra, A., & Prabhakar, H. (2016). Postoperative Paraplegia and Quadriplegia. In Complications in Neuroanesthesia (pp. 77–87). Elsevier.

Singh, V. P., Khullar, J., Garg, A., & Vardani, A. (2019). Acute quadriplegia: An interesting case with etiological and pathophysiological disparity. Indian Journal of Medical Specialities, 10(3), 162.

Wang, C. C., & Geale, S. K. (2015). The power of story: Narrative inquiry as a methodology in nursing research. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 2(2), 195–198.