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Unit Assignments
Unit III Case Study
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Write My Essay For MeAs a psychology major you may counsel people regarding substance abuse and addictions, or assist in a center that treats patients. You may have to write about your findings or suggestions of treatments, and back up your beliefs with supporting evidence.
Reread the scenarios again from the lecture—the first about Frank and alcohol; the second about Amy, her boyfriend, and their tobacco use. Choose one of these scenarios and answer the following questions:
- Does your patient(s) have a substance abuse issue or a substance dependence issue? Defend your answer. 2. What stage of change is your patient in? Support your answer with specific findings. (Refer to Chapter 3 for a reminder of the Stages of Change.) 3. Outline the cessation program(s) and course of treatment(s) you would recommend for your patient, explaining why you think this is the best option for your patient. 4. What follow up program would you recommend to your patient if he/she is successful in their course of treatment? Explain why you believe this is the best option for your patient.
This type of assignment in the real world can earn you respect and credibility with your colleagues. As you write up your answers be sure to support them with at least two other resources other than your textbook. Use APA format, and present your information in a professional manner. This could be a document you could use in a portfolio on a job interview. Your paper should be at least 750 words.
Unit IV Case Study
PSY 4620, Health Psychology 3
Sara is a 25-year-old college graduate from a moderate SES family. Even though Sara was an active athlete in high school, she could never shed the extra pounds that clung to her upper body. She was an above average student in high school and college and she was always surrounded by friends, but had only one boyfriend for a short time in high school. Sara’s friends and family thought her a bright, intelligent, attractive young lady with a great sense of humor and enjoyed being around her. Sara, on the other hand, constantly compared herself to her older sister; a straight-A student, athlete, who was thin and blonde, and never had a shortage of dates.
Upon graduation from college, Sara joined the Peace Corps. Because she had visited Africa on several trips during high school and college, learned some of the language, and interviewed well during the recruiting process, Sara was assigned to a two year post in Ethiopia, one of the more difficult assignments. She was in a remote location and as it was difficult to meet up with other Peace Corps volunteers, she felt very isolated at times. During her first year she sent weekly emails to friends and family back home sharing the experiences, trials, tribulations, and triumphs of her job. Two months into her second year, the emails ceased, and six months into her second year she was sent back to the United States, as the Peace Corps officials thought she was suffering from a severe case of depression. After two months of tests, it was determined that she had Cushing’s disease, due to a tumor on her pituitary gland. This tumor affected Sara’s cortisol and ACTH levels.
Sara underwent brain surgery and a tumor was removed. At first, recovery looked good, but her symptoms of additional weight gain (40 pounds) and water retention concerned the doctors and it has been determined (three months later) that Sara must undergo another surgery as the entire tumor may not have been removed. Sara and her family have been through a roller coaster ride, but Sara has remained optimistic and has resumed her weekly emails to friends and family keeping them informed of her situation and asking for their continued support.
As a psychologist working with Sara, you have asked her if you can use her situation as an example during a stress conference you must attend. You need to write up a discussion of how stress may have affected Sara’s condition including the following items:
- Research Cushing’s disease, and discuss how this disease is related to the topic of stress. 2. Use at least one stress theory mentioned in the textbook or additional scholarly source to support your discussion. 3. Based on the situation, discuss the stress moderators experienced and the impact they may play on this case. 4. Based on what you know about Sara, discuss how her personality, your perception of her resilience, and her other coping mechanisms have influenced her health situation. 5. What coping interventions would you suggest to Sara as she comes through her second surgery and must wait a couple of months to determine the success of the surgery. Explain why you would suggest these interventions.
Use Word to write up your discussion, which should be a minimum of 1,000 words. The paper should be in APA format, and references should be cited correctly.
Unit V Case Study
In Unit IV, you were introduced to Sara, a young woman in her mid-twenties that had been diagnosed with Cushing’s disease. Let’s take a look at the health service and practitioner relationships she dealt with through her health situation.
Because her initial diagnosis from the Peace Corps was for depression, she was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Sara was upset that she was admitted to this type of facility. Due to her severe weight gain, additional tests were run, and two months later she was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease. She was released from the psychiatric hospital and allowed to return home, as a hospital two hours from her hometown was known for its excellent reputation and history with this illness. She was assigned a neurologist who recommended the first surgery, but was told at the time the surgery might not completely remove the entire tumor. After surgery, Sara was assigned an endocrinologist, Dr. Harris, a leading doctor in the field, who would monitor her cortisol levels. It was at this point that Sara’s problems with the practitioners, the services, and the hospital administration began.
After Dr. Harris had monitored Sara’s recovery, it was determined that there were still problems. On the phone Dr. Harris told Sara that she had three options: 1) redo the surgery, 2) a chemotherapy type of treatment, and 3) an adrenalectomy (removal of her adrenal glands). Dr. Harris told Sara to Google the options and to call her Monday morning with her choice because she was leaving the office for the weekend.
PSY 4620, Health Psychology 4
Sara was upset with the fact that Dr. Harris was so brief and did not give her very much information, but she did the research and made somewhat of a decision. She was more upset when she called Monday morning, left a message, and continued to call the hospital numerous times each day after that until Friday when the doctor finally returned her call. When Sara asked the hospital for an apology from the doctor for waiting so long to call her back, one of the nurses in the office made the call. During her previous meetings with Dr. Harris, the doctor talked about how she and her staff laughingly called Cushing’s patients “marshmallows with toothpicks sticking out of them.” Sara did not think this was funny.
Sara told Dr. Harris that she was choosing the third option and a consultation was scheduled with another Cushing’s specialist, a neurosurgeon. The specialist, Dr. Hand, advised Sara that redoing her surgery was a much better option for her and went into detail about why. He also explained the other options and why those were not good options for Sara. He was surprised that Dr. Harris had not better informed Sara, and Sara later learned from his staff that this was not the first time Dr. Harris had received complaints. The new surgery was scheduled.
In the meantime, Sara’s health benefits were being directed by a caseworker through the Department of Labor (due to her work with the Peace Corp). This government office was covering the cost of her medical expenses, but there was a lot of “red tape” involved. All procedures had to be cleared and approved before they could take place.
On the day before Sara’s surgery, she drove the two hours to the hospital, completed her blood work, and was finishing her admittance paperwork when the bookkeeping department called down and told Sara that she had not been cleared for the surgery. Sara was upset, but drove the two hours back home after the surgery was rescheduled for the following week. After calling the hospital and being assured that everything was okay, Sara returned to the hospital the next week only to be told by another area, that once again, the surgery had not yet been approved. She burst into tears, worried that this much needed surgery would never happen and not understanding why the hospital was giving her contradictory information.
At this point Dr. Hand intervened, reported to Sara’s caseworker at the Department of Labor that the surgery had reached the point of critical necessity, and performed the surgery. Sara is now taking six pills twice a day based on the follow up information Dr. Hand gave her and her parents. She is looking for a new endocrinologist closer to home.
After the surgery, Sara wrote letters to the hospital complaining about the administrative communication and the lack of attention from the endocrinologist.
As a health psychologist on staff at this hospital, you have been assigned to a task committee to address Sara’s complaints. The committee is comprised of you, a doctor on staff, a nurse on staff, and an administrative manager from the hospital. You and your committee must summarize this case. Although your hospital was not involved in the initial diagnosis, include in your summary the initial diagnosis of depression, and how Sara’s symptoms and illness might have been diagnosed more quickly. Discuss the communication issues that played a part in this scenario and how these could have been improved. Make recommendations to the doctors in this scenario about how they should proceed with patients in the future. Include recommendations to the hospital on how they might improve communications with patients—especially those patients who do not have insurance, or the more traditional insurance plans like HMOs or PPOs that are more easily processed. In conclusion, state whether you think Sara will adhere to her prescribed recovery plan and why.
Your document should be no less than 1,000 words and should be written in Word. Use an additional scholarly source other than your textbook and cite your references according to APA format.
Research Paper
Unit III Research Paper
Stage 1
As you may have noticed in all of the units, case scenarios are used to help in the understanding of health issues and behaviors. As a final project you will write a case scenario yourself. You will choose a health issue, create a case study, discuss the topics around this issue, determine the stage of change this person is in, and make suggestions for treatment. This issue can be based on yourself, someone you know, or created from the information you learn in this course. If you use yourself or someone you know, be sure and protect the identity of your patient by changing the name in the case study, this respects confidentiality.
PSY 4620, Health Psychology 5
You will work on this project in pieces throughout the course. As you complete each piece you will submit it to your instructor for feedback. It will be important to turn in each unit’s project on a timely basis in order to allow yourself time to read the instructor’s feedback and make the necessary corrections. At the end of the course, you will take your corrected project pieces and compile them into one final paper.
For this unit, you will decide the health issue that you are going to use. You will also want to look over the last two units (along with the current unit) and discuss five topics you’ve learned so far that you will address in your project. (You may want to look at your key terms for help to identify issues.) If you are not sure, you may choose two issues and narrow them down throughout the next two units. The health issues to choose from are listed below:
Obesity Cancer Anorexia Nervosa Bulimia Alcoholism Smoking Stress Heart Disease Hypertension Stroke Type I Diabetes Type II Diabetes HIV Infection and AIDS Arthritis
Your textbook addresses all of these issues, but you will need to use at least three other scholarly sources in addition to your textbook for your final paper. For this unit, type the health issue you will research (two issues if you are not sure), why you are choosing this issue, and five topics from Units I, II, and III that you will incorporate into your case study. Use Word to type your assignment which should be no less than 250 words. The paper should be in APA format, and references should be cited correctly.
Stage 2
At this point you should be narrowing down your health topic for your final project. Your assignment for this unit is to start a draft of your case study for your project. As you have seen in the past units, a case study is a “story” of your patient’s medical history and issues. Personal details may be needed to give your reader pertinent information to fully understand your case. In your draft you should include personal information about your patient such as age, family history, job history (if applicable) and other pertinent details about the patient. The case student should include very detailed information about the disease and how it affects your patient. You will need to use two additional scholarly sources in addition to your textbook to support your description of your patient’s disease. Remember that if your case study is based on yourself or a real situation, you need to change the names of those involved to protect anonymity.
As mentioned previously, your patient may be in the beginning stage, middle stage, or final stage of the disease. You will need to include this information as well as the stage of change your patient is in.
Refer back to the five key topics you are choosing to include in this assignment. Do you have enough information to include any of these topics yet? If so, include those that are appropriate. You will be asked this question during each unit, so as you read through your textbook and your research keep in mind the information you will want to incorporate into your case study.
So in summary these are the items you will have in your case study at this point: 1. Patient’s personal and medical history 2. Detailed medical information about your patient’s health issue and how it affects your patient. 3. The stage of the health issue your patient is in and the stage of change your patient is in. 4. Any of the appropriate five key topics you chose at the beginning of the project.
Your case study at this point should be no less than 750 words. It is very important that you turn this assignment in early so that you can receive feedback from your professor. You may need to add more details and your professor’s feedback will be important throughout this project. Use Word to write your assignment, using APA format and citing references correctly.
PSY 4620, Health Psychology 6
Unit IV Research Paper
Stage 3
Once your case study has been written, you will want to include information regarding stress, and the effects of stress on your patient in your case study. This section of your case study should include the stress moderators that affect your patient, the coping mechanisms that influence your patients handling of stress, and the stress management techniques you recommend as the patient’s counselor.
This section of your case study should be a minimum of 500 words and should be turned in by the end of Unit IV. This assignment should be separate from your original case study, so include the health issue you are addressing at the top of the page. Use Word to write your assignment, using APA format and citing references correctly. As a reminder, it is important that you turn in all of your research assignment projects in a timely fashion so that you can receive feedback from your professor and make revisions as necessary.
Unit V Research Paper
Stage 4
You should be completing the 2nd and 3rd stages of your Research Paper, which is the summary of your case study and the effects of stress on our patient by making corrections based on your instructor’s feedback. If you haven’t turned these assignments in yet, get them to your instructor as soon as possible and before you begin your next stage in order to receive feedback and make any necessary corrections.
For the 4th stage of your Research Paper you will include information about the health services your patient received. In this section, include the types of doctor(s) your patient has seen and why. Discuss how your patient was diagnosed with his or her illness, how they stay informed about their illness, and what treatment they are receiving. Discuss your patient’s adherence (or nonadhereance) to the suggested treatment. If your patient is not at this point yet, discuss what steps you will use to help your patient adhere to their recovery/treatment process. Include in your discussion ways that communication could be (or could have been) improved throughout his or her illness. Use additional scholarly resources to support your recommendations and cite your resources.
This stage of your case study should be no less than 500 words. It is very important that you turn this assignment in early so that you can receive feedback from your professor. You may need to add more details and your professor’s feedback will be important throughout this project. Use Word to write your assignment, using APA format and citing references correctly.
Unit VI Research Paper
Stage 5
You should be completing the 4th stage of your Research Paper, which is the information about the health services your patient received by making corrections based on your instructor’s feedback. If you haven’t turned this assignment in yet, get it to your instructor as soon as possible and before you begin your next stage in order to receive feedback and make any necessary changes.
For the 5th stage of your Research Paper, you will need to include information about your patient’s pain issues. Describe how their pain was measured and what type of pain behaviors have been, or were, exhibited. Does your patient suffer from acute or chronic pain? Make sure to explain their symptoms. Has your patient’s personality, emotional responses, personal issues, or coping strategies affected their pain tolerance and management? Give specific details. Discuss and apply the psychological interventions and the co-management program(s) you would recommend to your patient. Use additional scholarly resources to support your recommendations, support your patient’s pain symptoms, and/or pain interventions.
This stage of your case study should be no less than 500 words. It is very important that you turn this assignment in early so that you can receive feedback from your professor. You may need to add more details and your professor’s feedback will be important throughout this paper. Use Word to write your assignment, using APA format and citing references correctly.
Unit VII Research Paper
Stage 6
PSY 4620, Health Psychology 7
You should be completing the 5th stage of your Research Paper, which is the information about your patient’s pain issues by making corrections based on your instructor’s feedback. If you haven’t turned this assignment in yet, get it to your instructor as soon as possible and before you begin your next stage in order to receive feedback and make any necessary changes.
For the 6th stage of your Research Paper, you will want to discuss how the attitudes and behaviors of your patient have changed, especially if the issue you are discussing is terminal or has increased the chances of your patient dying an early death. Include the stages of the dying process your patient has experienced, or based on their personality, might experience, and why. As a health psychologist, discuss the interventions and recommendations you would make to your patient and their family to cope with the issue of dying.
If you are writing about an issue other than hypertension, include in this section how hypertension may affect the issue you are discussing. Explain the relationship between your patient’s health issues and their immune system. Use additional scholarly resources to support your assessment and recommendations and cite your resources according to APA format.
This stage of your case study should be no less than 500 words. It is very important that you turn this assignment in early so that you can receive feedback from your professor. You may need to add more details and your professor’s feedback will be important throughout this project. Use Word for your assignment.
Unit VIII Research Paper
Compilation
It is now time to compile your individual projects from Units III-VII into one comprehensive report. Use the reports that you wrote, as well as revisions that you made based on your instructor’s feedback. Create one report that summarizes and illustrates all aspects of your patient’s health issue. Your previous assignments should contain everything that you need, but you might need to rearrange some information in order to present your report in a logical, readable order. For example, you may find that a paragraph from one assignment is better placed into the area of another assignment (merely combining the assignments in order may not be the best case study presentation for your patient). Take the time to present your material professionally. Use headings to clarify sections, and properly cite all references using APA format at the end of the paper.
Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.
