NOT ON STUDY GUIDE FOR EXAM 3 - Week 12: Self-Actualization, Spirituality And Transcendence Flashcards
Older people are more in touch with
Their inner psychological life than at any other point in the life cycle
Understanding the developmental phases in the second half of life assists in
Understanding the journey toward self-actualization
Self-Actualization
Is the highest expression of one’s individual potential and implies inner motivation that has been freed to express the most unique self or the “authentic person”
Characteristics of the Self- Actualized
- Courage
- Altruism
- Humor
Characteristics of the Self-Actualized: Courage
Conquer fear and despair in the face of difficulty, danger, pain or uncertainty
Characteristics of Self-Actualized: Altruism
High degree of helping behaviors in many older adults
Characteristics of the Self-Actualized: Humor
- Sustains mental well-being
- Continuous moral development: the driving forces of morality are love and intellect.
- Self-renewal: ongoing process as one becomes self-actualized
- Collective self-actualization: self-actualized person is powerful and confident
Wisdom
Represents the pinnacle of human development
Characteristics of Wisdom
-Achievement of wisdom is a developmental process that requires the ability to “integrate experiences across time and utilize these experiences in a reflective manner”
Creativity
-A bridge between the growing self and the transcending self.
Creative Attitudes include
- Curiosity
- Inquisitiveness
- Wonderment
- Puzzlement
- Craving for understanding
Creativity and Dementia
Creative arts and expression offer great value to people with dementia and hold tremendous promise to improve quality of life
Recreation
- Akin to creation
- A change of scene or companions may be exhilarating.
Inter generational programs
Can “help older and younger people look beyond their generational stereotypes and know each other (body, mind, spirit)”
Our function as nurses who value self-actualization are:
- Continually spur our clients to ask “What is possible and suitable for me?”
- Assist them in finding appropriate resources and, when needed, assist in implementing activities toward self-actualization.
Spirituality
- Indescribable need that drives individuals throughout life to seek meaning and purpose in their existence.
- The spiritual aspect of people’s lives transcends the physical and psychosocial to reach the deepest individual capacity for love, hope, and meaning.
- Spirituality must be considered a significant factor to understanding healthy aging.
Spirituality and religion
Spirituality is a broader concept than religion and encompasses a person’s values or beliefs, search for meaning, and relationships with a higher power, with nature, and with other people.
Loss of spirit
Functional decline and dependence can threaten the sense of identity and connection with others and the world, thus causing loss of spirit.
Spirituality Assessment
- Spirituality is as important as assessment of physical, emotional, and social dimensions.
- Attention to spiritual needs of persons is a critical dimension of holistic care.
- A spiritual history opens the door to a conversation about the role of spirituality and religion in a person’s life.
Spiritual Assessment Tools
There are formal spiritual assessments, but open-ended questions can also be used to begin dialogue about spiritual concerns
Spirituality Interventions
- Nurturing the spirit of the nurse
- Faith community nursing
Nurturing the spirit of the nurse
Thinking about what gives your own life meaning and value helps in developing your spiritual self and assists you in being able to offer spiritual support to patients
Faith community nursing
The focus of faith community nursing is “the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, and responding to suffering in the context of values, beliefs, and practices of a faith community”
Transcendence
- High level of emotional response to religious and spiritual life and finds expression in numerous rituals and modes of cosmic response
- Roused by the desire to go beyond the self as delimited by the material and concrete aspects of living, to expand self-boundaries and life perspectives
Gerotranscendence
Human aging brings about a general potential for gerotranscendence, a shift from the material world to cosmic, and (concurrent with that), life satisfaction
Transcendence includes
- Time transcendence
- Peak experiences
- Meditation
- Hope as a transcendent mechanism
- Transcendence in illness
Transcendence: Peak experiences
Momentarily transcend the self through love, wisdom, insight, worship, commitment or creativity
Transcendence: Hope
Hope is the anchor that sustains life in the most difficult times and in the face of doubts and ennui
Transcendence: Illness
Influences how one perceives meaning in life
Legacies
One’s tangible and intangible assets that are transferred to another and may be treasured as a symbol of mortality
Types of legacies
- Autobiographies and life histories
- Creation of self through journaling
- Collective legacies: expressed through other people
- Living legacies
- Property and assets
- Personal possessions
Nursing Responsibility and Transcendence
The responsibility of the nurse is not to make people well, or to prevent their getting sick, but to assist people to recognize the power that is within them to move to higher levels of consciousness
