ENHANCING COPING STRATEGIES

McCloskey and Bulechek (1999) identified “coping enhancement” as a nursing intervention and defined it as “assisting a patient to adapt to perceived stressors, changes, or threats that interfere with meeting life demands and roles”. The nurse can build on the patient’s existing coping strategies, as identified in the health appraisal, or teach new strategies for coping if necessary.
The five predominant ways of coping with illness identified in a review of 57 nursing research studies were as follows ( Jalowiec,1993):
• Trying to be optimistic about the outcome
• Using social support
• Using spiritual resources
• Trying to maintain control either over the situation or over feelings
• Trying to accept the situation
Other ways of coping included seeking information, reprioritizing needs and roles, lowering expectations, making compromises, comparing oneself to others, planning activities to conserve
energy, taking things one step at a time, listening to one’s body, and using self-talk for encouragement.
The nurse can implement the coping enhancement interventions and explore methods for improving the patient’s coping abilities.