What Men Face While at the Palliative Ward

Posted by georginabelikov on August 18th, 2010

For two weeks straight, Mr. B has been staying at the palliative ward, after he was initially diagnosed with brain tumor. He had to go through surgery and chemotherapy since the tumor was malignant. It had been a grueling time for him, and as the nurse assigned to him, it was also an agony for me. He's one of my male patients in the ward, and I noticed that there are some things common with them.

Society says that men should be the head of the households. They are the ones who should take care of their family members, and provide everything that they need as much as possible. They are meant to be the rock of the family, as well as the protector. Strength and courage are two of their must characteristics that they must possess. Not having these two would leave an implication that they are weak.

When men are admitted to the hospital, they do not like to be taken care of. They would prefer to do things themselves, such as going to the bathroom, washing their hair, eating their meals, and almost all of the activities. However, as a nurse, I know better. They are not to tire themselves too much, for doing that would only worsen their condition especially in cases of terminal diseases. They have to take as much rest as possible, because every activity would need energy expenditure, and that is what is being limited in them. Energy conservation is one of the goals of nursing care, in order for them to recover quickly.

One of the things that men face while at the palliative ward is the challenge to their integrity. As what was mentioned beforehand, they are supposed to be the ones in charge. Because they are sick, they are not anymore and they are uncomfortable with that. They are now the ones being taken care of, and that's a hit to their ego. Another is the challenge to their independence especially with doing simple tasks like hygiene maintenance. They are not able to go to the bathroom so they have to swallow their pride and use urinals and bed pans. They don't feel good with this, and you can tell right from their expression that they are truly embarrassed. Also, they are not anymore capable of handling the financial matters. Although their savings and wages are the ones being spent for their medical therapies, they sometimes run out of cash that they have to ask help from their relatives and friends. This is not good for their reputation and is something that they don?t want to talk about.

Knowing the challenges that men face regarding their personalities would help a lot when taking care of them. Just like Mr. B and almost all of my patients while I was at the Palliative Ward, I was able to take care of them and develop a great working relationship. I respected their needs, especially their need to be treated as a man who is capable of doing his thing, even if he is not well. That is very important and really, they appreciated me more for that.