People approach heart surgery differently than they approach other types of surgery, a psychologist on the teaching ' staff of Louisiana State university school of medicine said here Tuesday.
'The heart cripple approaches evaluation for surgery with the hope that there is surgery for him," Dr. Clifford Whipple Brackenridge said in an interview.
"The attitude of most persons toward operations in general is 'I hope I won't need an operation/ "
Dr. Brackenridge took part in a course on cardiac nursing being sponsored at the LSU medical school by the school's department of nursing and the Louisiana Heart Association,
Heart surgery is a stress situation, he said, to which each person reacts in his own way. And nurses treating this patient must understand him as an individual, Dr. Brackenridge added.
"The nurse must try to understand how the, patient sees himself," he said. "Just as a child learning to walk lives in a world of knees, each person looks- at the world through his! own eyes. A nurse, however, I must learn to see the world j through her patient's eyes."
This understanding of the person is important because of the relationship of emotional fac-
tors to physical illness, the psychologist said.
"The more the nurse can relate as person-to-person with her patient, the more she will understand and help him," he said.
Dr. Brackenridge said that "heart surgery is a fearsome experience."
"People fear the unknown," he said, "and up until a few years ago there was not much known about the heart. Also heart surgery is close to what people consider the life line."
Adding to their fear, he said, is the feeling that they are putting their lives in the hands of another human being.
"But persons have defenses against this fearfulness that help them get through," he said. "Man has the ability to survive this stress situation. They seem to find the strength."
The sessions continue through Friday at the medical school.
