Powerlessness and personal control model applied to the myocardial infarction patient.

The MI patient can experience powerlessness through loss of personal control. The feeling of powerlessness can limit the patient's ability to understand the diagnosis of MI, care or decisions necessary to restore health. The MI patient can react by experiencing a sense of physiological, cognitive, environmental and decisional loss of control. Regardless of the specific component of the powerless model, the coronary care nurse diagnoses powerlessness according to defining characteristics. Nursing interventions are organized to facilitate physiological, cognitive, environmental and decisional powerfulness. Research is needed to clarify the MI patient's perception of control or lack of control within each component of the presented model, and to evaluate the effectiveness of nursing interventions created to foster personal control or uncontrol. Research will enable the nurse to scientifically determine strategies and outcomes that correlate with the patient's need for control in the illness situation.