Applying Swanson`s Caring Theory to a Patient With End Renal Stage Disease Experiencing Hopelessness

Abstract

This article describes an experience providing nursing care to a patient under hemodialysis with the end-stage renal disease who had developed depression, loathing, and other, negative personal perceptions and gradually gave up on life goals due to hopelessness. The duration of nursing care, from August 23rd through August 29th, 2019, was revisited to identify the patient`s hopelessness in the dimensions of physiology, mental status, society, and spirituality. The author applied Swanson`s Caring Theory to facilitate the process of "knowing" and "being with" while performing direct nursing care and attentive listening to assist the patient to become more open-minded and to express personal perceptions toward the disease with the goal of further engaging the patient to increase self-awareness recognition, sense of loss, and negative perceptions. Through "doing for" and "enabling," the author reinforced infection control and identified the symptoms of fluid-overload, moisture, and salinity to raise the patient`s self-awareness and self-caring techniques and to lower the risk of hospitalization. Meanwhile, by "maintaining the patient`s belief," accompanied by the encouragement and attention from family members and providing linkages to patient-support communities, the patient was guided to identify and aggregate to foster positive thinking and self-worth to increase acceptance of living with the disease. Nursing personnel may apply Swanson`s Caring Theory to better consider the patient`s perspective, provide individual caring schemes, and strengthen the recognition, self-caring techniques and supportive systems of patients, increasing patient perceptions of self-worth, restoring their confidence, promoting their adaption to their disease, and improving attentiveness.