Some Psychological Aspects of Gynecological Nursing

Abstract

THE GYNECOLOGICAL PATIENT demands more from the nurse than almost any other patient because her problem goes far beyond a physical disability. In addition to the adjustment to hospital life and the thought of an operation, she has to overcome conflicts resulting from many misconceived ideas. Anyone coming into a hospital has a feeling of panic, a fear of becoming a number or a case. She leaves behind her the things that had been marks of identification, her clothes, her family, her home. She goes through what seems to her a foolish and terrifying admission routine and begins to feel that perhaps she is really a pretty sick person after all. When she arrives at her hospital bed the whole world seems strange and unreal. She looks just like the rest of the women about her. Everything is so businesslike and efficient, starched uniforms, rows of identical beds and stands, thermometers-a perfect maze of sinister objects. She is probably afraid as she sees other women sick and suffering. Here the nurse has the opportunity to bring something of the familiar out of the strangeness. Merely asking about her family, the weather, or how far she has come takes this patient back to familiar ground, and makes her able to approach the new environment from the known, in logical steps. Most gynecological patients have to face an operation. Very few people approach an operation without fear. To each it is a thing of dread, to which she has consented only after a bitter inner struggle. The very fear tires the patient and makes her less resistant to the com-