Abstract

BENITEZ-AGUDELO, Juan C.; BARCELO-MARTINEZ, Ernesto A.  and  GELVES-OSPINA, Melissa. Psychological characteristics of patients with long hospital stay and a protocol proposal for their clinical management. Cir. plást. iberolatinoam. [online]. 2016, vol.42, n.4, pp.391-398. ISSN 1989-2055.

Background and Objectives: The psychological impact of hospitalization on patients admitted for a long period is variable and it's shown as an answer to stress and on how ill the hospitalized patient is. The objective of this investigation was to determine the main psychological disturbances and to design a protocol to know how to handle long-stay patients at the hospital. Patients and Method: In this investigation were applied tools such as the Anxiety inventory, Characteristic-status depression inventory and Sandin & Chorot strategies of confrontation test. We conduct a descriptive type study, guided by the annalistic empiric paradigm, quantity cut, non-experimental design, with a population of 50 patients and a sample of 15, non-probabilistic sample, intentional type, inclusion and exclusion criteria from the investigation were taken into account. Results: Among the most relevant aspects found, were discovered prominent depressive status, anxiety, low opened emotional expression, high positive reevaluation, which is very relevant to handle all long-stay patients at the hospital. Conclusions: Long-stay hospitalization is normally connected to the individual's detachment of its natural environment, which can generate on patient states of sadness, anxiety and to trigger negative effects such as low emotional expression. These characteristics can be useful as a guide for health professionals, and we so, we design a model of more effective protocol, which would help the patient to face, in a better way, all the difficulties presented in the hospital field.

Keywords : Long-stay hospitalization; Anxiety; Depression; Confrontation strategies; Protocols.

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