Psychological adaptation to the stress of physical illness, psychosocial assessment factors: social history, level of stress, normal coping pattern, neurovegative changes, patients understanding of illness, mental status, personality style and major issues of illness, psychosocial assessment as the basis of the nursing process and the essential nursing role in the psychosocial assessment.

1. Psycho- Social Assessment
C. Settley- 2016

2. Psychological adaptation to
Physical illness
• Psychosocial adaptation process, other than the
physical adaptation is more complex and less
understood of the two modes of adaptation.
• No two human beings responds emotionally the
same way to the same event.
• This in in contrast to physiological adaptation,
which is observable and more predictable.
• From the patient record, psychological
information can be retrieved for nurses to form a
psycho-social assessment of a patient.

7. Psychosocial adaptation
• involving both psychological and social
aspects.
• relating social conditions to mental health.
• the action or process of adapting or being
adapted.

8. Psychosocial adaptation after a major
illness depends on the following
factors:
• 1) Social History
• This includes information about a patient’s
lifestyle and availability of persons who
can support him emotionally during a
difficult event.

9. Psychosocial adaptation after a major
illness depends on the following
factors:
• 2) Level of stress during the year before
admission
• This factor assesses the patient’s current
life situation, which includes the major
stressors he/she has experienced during
the past year.

10. Psychosocial adaptation after a major
illness depends on the following
factors:
• 3) Normal coping pattern
• People respond to difficult times in certain
ways. When asked, most patients can
describe what they normally do to cope
when they have a serious problem or are
experiencing high levels of stress.

11. Psychosocial adaptation after a major
illness depends on the following
factors:
• 4) Neurovegative Changes
• These are signs of differences in a
person’s normal psychophysiological
functions. They include changes in sleep
patterns, appetite, bowel functioning,
energy levels and sexual functioning.

12. Psychosocial adaptation after a major
illness depends on the following
factors:
• 5) Patient’s understanding of illness
• Does the patient fully understand what is
now happening and will it continue to
happen to him/her as a result of his /her
illness? How threatening is this illness to
this patient?

13. Psychosocial adaptation after a major
illness depends on the following
factors:
• 6) Mental Status
• Is there any evidence of emotional,
intellectual or perceptual dysfunctioning at
this time?

14. Psychosocial adaptation after a major
illness depends on the following
factors:
• 7) Personality style
• This is the way a person normally interacts
socially with others. Sometimes
someone's personality style causes
problems in his ability to adapt to
hospitalisation and care givers and to his
illness.

15. Psychosocial adaptation after a major
illness depends on the following
factors:
• 8) Major issues of illness
• Illness can cause many types of
psychosocial stress for the patient and his
family. These include disruptions in his
ability to trust, maintain self- esteem,
retain a sense of control, tolerate a major
loss, avoid feelings of guilt and maintain
intimacy in his close relationships.

16. Prediction of
psycho social status
• By using the 8 psychosocial assessment
factors, nurses should be able to predict
with a good level of accuracy whether a
patient will be able to adapt to a sudden
change in health status.
• If one or more of the indicators points out
a potential problem, the nurse can
observe the responses closely.

17. References
• Applied Psychology Reader 2016.
• Hospital Documents- Patient
administration sheet.