Meeting Patients' Psychosocial Needs in the General Hospital

As psychological factors become increasingly recognized as determinants of therapeutic progress, the need becomes clearer for hospitals, physicians, and nurses to consider the psychosocial and cultural needs of patients, to treat the whole person and not merely a disease entity. Many patients enter the hospital with anxiety not only about physical condition but also about family, occupational, or financial mat ters. They hope to find skilled technical care, sympathetic understanding, and an agreeable physical and social environ ment. Regardless of the congruence between what patients want and the concept of total patient care, many persons perceive their hospitalization as characterized by unallayed anxiety, loneliness, boredom, or frustration. This perception is the product of various interrelated factors. Especially im portant are the requirement of the hospital that patients ac commodate themselves to an alien environment with its many deprivations and the lack of opportunity for patients to com municate their doubts and uncertainties freely to "their doctor" or "their nurse."