Aiza is the wife of 52-year-old Hasan, who has been hospitalized for pneumonia. Aiza has spent the day by her husband's bedside and decides to leave his side to have dinner in the hospital cafeteria
When she returns to his room she finds Hasan is having difficulty breathing and notices that his oxygen saturation monitor is beeping and that the monitor is displaying 88% rather than the 94% it has been during the day. Aiza runs to get Hasan's nurse who is at a nearby computer charting. Which of the following statements made by Aiza best reflects the uncertainty of family illness? 1. "Please, you need to come to my husband's room—I'm afraid that he is dying."
2. "You need to come right now, I think that my husband needs some oxygen."
3. "This happened last time he was in the hospital for the flu—I think you need to check on him right away."
4. "I know I shouldn't have left for dinner—he gets so upset when I'm not at his side---he is probably having a hard time breathing because he is upset."
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1 Uncertainty can be defined as the inability to identify the meaning of illness-related events. Families are often in a foreign territory when a member is hospitalized and they don't have the skill or ability to accurately understand or interpret situations and often expect the worst.
2 Aiza has accurately diagnosed her husband's physiological need with certainty.
3 Prior experience is reducing the level of uncertainty in this situation.
4 Although taking on responsibility for a problem that may not have been caused by her absence, this potential explanation is based on accurate prior history rather than uncertainty about the situation.
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