The Term Traumatic Accident - Dissertation Example

Patients suffering from medical trauma are usually brought into a medical setting in significant distress. The medical staff is expected to attend primarily to the patient rather than interact with the family at the onset (Sheaffer, 2010). While the patient is being treated, the family is often required to wait until the medical caregivers can provide them with some information since it can take a while to develop a prognosis (Klum, 2012). These waits can be long and anxiety-provoking. As the treatment continues, it could take time for information about the prognosis to become fully available.

In cases where the family is included in the treatment process, the extent of this involvement usually concludes with psychoeducational interventions focused on teaching the family how the patient will need additional support and encouragement (Klum, 2012; Sheaffer, 2010). Rarely do these treatments consider the stress and changes within the family system itself (Sheaffer, 2010). Unfortunately, hospitals are typically not equipped to help survivors' family respond to and cope with their own emotions associated with the incident.

Consequently, these families rarely address the shock and ambiguity concerning the changes in their lives. As a result, families can experience ambiguity about their family roles, the implications of the diagnosis and prognosis on their personal lives, and the patient (Rietdijk, Togher & Power, 2012). This ambiguity can become more difficult to address for the family, which may interfere with their ability to respond adequately to the patient’s needs (Sheaffer, 2010). Because of this situation, the family might experience various emotions ranging from anxiety and despair as they are faced with each new piece of information.

For example, Kreutzer et al. (2009) found that while about 57% of the actual survivors of traumatic accidents showed depressive symptoms, about 80% of family members reported similar symptoms.