2- Stress And Adaptation (ch 42) Flashcards
Stressor
Anything that is perceived as threatening, challenging or demanding
- disrupters within any system
- links environmental demands and the perceptions of those demands as challenging and threatening
Stress
Affects the whole person in all human dimensions - physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual- positively or negatively.
Feeling that demands exceed the personal and social resources one is able to mobilize
Results from the change in the environment that is perceived as a threat, challenge, or danger.
Adaptation
A change that takes place as a result of the response to a stressor. Ongoing process to maintain balance
Homeostasis
Various physiologic mechanisms within the body respond to internal changes to maintain relative constancy in the internal environment
Local Adaptation Syndrome LAS
Localized response of the body to stress. Involves only a specific body part/organ Not the whole body
Reflex pain response
Rapid and automatic response of the CNS to pain and serves as a protective mechanism to prevent injury
Inflammatory response
Local response to injury or infection. Serves to localize and prevent the spread of infection and promote wound healing
General Adaptation Syndrome GAS
developed by Hans Selye
Body’s general response to stress.
3 stages:
- Alarm (short, min-hours, fight or flight rising hormones, epinephrine);
- Stage of Resistance (body attempts to adapt and stabilize);
- Stage of Exhaustion (adaptive mechanisms are exhausted and now unable to adapt)
Psychosomatic disorders
Physiological alterations are thought to be at least partially caused by psychological influences.
(Ex: Stress causing a person to be ill. Their psychological factor is making them sick)
Anxiety
Vague, uneasy feeling of discomfort, guilt, doubt, fears or dread from an often unknown source.
Threat may be real or imagined
Types of anxiety
Pg 1527 4 types: Mild Moderate Severe- fight or flight, nonadaptive, Panic
Coping mechanism
Conscious behaviors used to decrease stress and anxiety.
Defense mechanism
Unconscious reactions to stressors
Commonly occurring defense mechanisms
Compensation, denial, displacement, introjection, projection, rationalization, reaction formation, regression, repression, sublimation, undoing
Effects of stress
- stress and the basic human needs (maslow’s)
- stress in health and illness
- long term stress *serious threat to physical and emotional health
- Family Stress (stress that affects an ill person also affects family members)
- Crisis
Caregiver burden
Prolonged stress of caring for a family member at home for long periods
Crisis
Disturbance caused by an event such as a perceived loss, a threat of loss, or challenge that is perceived as a threat to self
2 Sources of stress
- Developmental stress (when a person progresses through normal stages of growth)
- Situational stress (occurs at any time)
Types if stressors
- Physiologic stressors -alteration of normal body function
2. Psychosocial Stressors - real and perceived threats.
Burnout
Behaviors that include becoming overwhelmed and developing symptoms of stress
Crisis intervention
5 step problem solving technique
- ID the problem clearly
- List all possible solutions. (Alternatives)
- Choose from alternative solutions
- Implement
- Evaluate
NIC - Anxiety Reduction
- use calm reassuring approach
- explain all procedures and sensations to be experienced
- stay w/ patient to promote safety & reduce fear
- listen attentively
- encourage verbalization of feelings etc
- instruct patient to use relaxation technique
- assess for verbal & nonverbal signs of anxiety
NOC - Anxiety Reduction
Improved anxiety level Improved anxiety self-control Impr. coping Impr. information processing Impr. stress level
Fight or flight
- Heart beats faster to circulate blood more quickly
- Blood vessels dilate
- Pupils dilate
- Glucose is released into the blood by liver
- Airways in he lungs dilate so more blood is oxygenated.
Mild anxiety
Day to day, increase alertness and perceptual fields, motivates learning and growth, facilitates problem solving
Moderate anxiety
Narrows a person’s perceptual fields so focus is on immediate concern, quavering voice, tremors, increased muscle tension, complaint of butterflies in stomach, slight increase pulse and respirations
Severe anxiety
Creates narrow focus on specific details, impaired learning ability, easily distracted,difficulty communicating, increased motor activity, fearful facial expression, headache, nausea, dizziness, tachycardia, hyperventilation
Fear
A feeling of dread. A Cognitive response to a known threat
Compensation
Person attempts to overcome a perceived weakness by emphasizing a more desirable trait or overachieving in a more comfortable area
Denial
Person refuses to acknowledge the presence of a condition that is disturbing
Displacement
Person transfers (displaces) an emotional reaction from one object or person to another object or person
Introjection
Person incorporates qualities or values of another person into his or her own ego structure.
*important in the formation of conscience during childhood.
Projection
Persons thoughts or impulses are attributed to someone else
Rationalization
Person tries to give a logical or socially acceptable explanation for questionable behavior
(Behavior justification)
Reaction formation
Person developed conscious attitudes of behavior patterns that are opposite to what he or she would really like to do.
Regression
Person returns to an earlier method of behaving.
Repression
A person voluntarily excludes an anxiety producing event from conscious awareness.
Sublimation
A person who substitutes a socially acceptable goal foe one whose normal channel of expression is blocked.
Undoing
An act or communication used to negates previous act or communication
