Psych + nursing = <3

I think that in five years, one thing from psychology that will be applied often and remembered will be Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In five years, I will hopefully have by BSN and working as an RN. According to the hierarchy of needs, there is a pyramid shaped classification of needs. The hierarchy from bottom to top classifies: physiological/ biological needs (e.g. water, food, sleep) safety needs (e.g. sense of security, danger prevention) love and belonging needs (e.g. acceptance, giving and receiving of love), self esteem needs (e.g. independence, gaining respect, and doing something worthwhile), and self-actualization. The textbook defines self-actualization as "the drive to develop our innate potential to the fullest possible extent". The pyramid-shape symbolizes both how the farther up the pyramid you get, the smaller number of people who reach that level (hence the narrowing at the top), and that the lower levels are supposedly needed to be reached before the upper levels can be reached (hence the building upon each other). Here lies a criticism that the book has with Maslow's theory, the authors say that a starving artist can make beautiful art, fulfilling higher up needs without achieving the physiological need of food.
A nurse's role includes what is called whole person care. If your patient is having medical issues, such as high blood pressure, but they don't have a physiological cause for this, it would be a good idea to ask if they are stressed. It is possible that one of their other needs has not met, perhaps they don't feel safe or they feel their family is neglecting them. If this need is found, it can be resolved, by possibly calling up the family to come visit or figuring out the source of the fear.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Maslow's_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg/450px-Maslow's_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg.png