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Empathy in therapeutic relationships in nursing
Empathy in therapeutic relationships in nursing
Empathy in therapeutic relationships in nursing
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Introduction
A great deal of emotions occur in the postpartum period, emotions that you could never understand unless you have been there. Before I attended a conference on depression in pregnancy & postpartum the thought of fathers suffering from postnatal depression never even entered my mind. As far as I was concerned, It was only associated it with giving birth. The knowledge I gained has not only changed my outlook on the subject but the way that I interact with and educate my patients. My focus is no longer just on the dyad of mom and baby it’s on mom, dad and baby if there is a partner involved at all. The purpose of this essay is to explore a particular concept related to professional caring in nursing. It will discuss the patient/client situation, exploration of the concept, how the concept relates to personal caring through noticing, interpreting, responding and reflection. The concept that will be explored in this paper is empathy.
Patient/Client Situation
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It involves, first, seeing someone else’s situation from his perspective, and, second, sharing his emotions, including, if any, his distress.”
According to the College of Nurse of Ontario (2006), empathy is one of the five key components of the nurse-client relationship and is one of the most powerful tools. You don’t need to know how your patient feels to be empathetic but letting them know that you are trying to understand is a good start. It can be used to describe a variety of experiences and had been defined by emotional researchers “as the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling” (University of California, Berkeley). Having the ability to empathize doesn’t mean you will or that you are willing to help someone in need but it is an important first step towards a compassionate
It reflects trust, intimacy, and responsibility, which are elements essential to any nursing relationship. It is the core of nursing. In the article, “Dimensions of Caring: A Qualitative Analysis of Nurses’ Stories”, an analysis was done on over two hundred stories submitted by nurses around the world, illustrating the point that the practice of nursing encompasses much more than just technical skills. In one of the stories, a nurse stood by the side of a young mother grieving the loss of her baby with nobody else to turn to. This nurse accompanied the 19 year old mother to the cemetery the day after the baby’s death, New Year’s Eve, to bury her baby that had been born at just 22 weeks gestation. She bought her a book on grieving and loss and supported the woman during that difficult time. This nurse did not have to do that—she did not have to go above and beyond for this stranger. But she did. She felt empathy and compassion for this woman and she acted on that. That is what nursing is about, going above and beyond, making emotional investments into the lives of other people. The significance of the actions of this nurse cannot be overstated. We will never know the full impact that this nurse made on that young woman’s life; perhaps she saved her life, or changed the direction of it for the
Therapeutic nurse-patient relationships lay the groundwork for successful care and rehabilitation of a patient in any setting. Whether the patient is in a nursing home, hospital, or receiving home care, a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is vital to the care of the patient. A therapeutic nurse-patient relationship can be defined as a professional relationship between the nurse and the patient that, “focuses on the client, is goal directed, and has defined parameters” (Craven & Hirnle, 2009, p. 329).
Compassion Fatigue, also known as “vicarious traumatization” or secondary traumatization is the emotional residue or strain of exposure to working with those suffering from the consequences of traumatic events. It differs from burn-out, but can co-exist (Briscoe, 2015). Compassion Fatigue was originally a phrase used to describe nurses working in hospice caring for terminally ill patients and the stress associated. However, throughout the years the term is now applied to all nurses working in clinical environments (Thompson, 2013). Compassion Fatigue can be sudden in onset and be triggered by exposure to traumatic patient experiences from which the nurses concerned cannot separate their feelings of stress and anxiety. In contrast, burnout tends to be a gradual process, leading to low levels of motivation and job satisfaction, and it can be linked to the day-to-day challenges of working in health care. Studies suggest that burnout may be a precursor to compassion fatigue (Thompson,
Safe labor and delivery is dependent on successful interaction of the four P’s; one of these P’s represents psyche. Psyche refers to “a woman’s emotional structure that can determine her entire response to labor and influence physiological and psychological functioning” (Silvestri, 2011, p. 298). Anxiety and fear are two common emotions experienced by women in labor, especially first time mothers, and can have an unfavorable effect on the labor and delivery process (Silvestri, 2011). In the situation described, Keisha is beginning to experience and express emotions that could be damaging and complicate a safe and successful birthing process. Although Keisha has an outpouring of support from her husband and extended family, it is imperative for the nurse to implement the Quality Caring Model© in this situation. Through implementation of the eight caring factors, the nurse must build and foster caring relationships with Keisha, her husband, their family, and other members of the healthcare team to achieve the best possible outcome for this situation.
Therapeutic relationships are an essential part of nursing; they are the foundation of nursing (CNO, 2009). The National Competency Standard for Registered Nurses states that nurses are responsible for “establishing, sustaining and concluding professional relationships with individuals/groups.” Throughout this essay, the importance of forming therapeutic relationships will be explained. The process of building a therapeutic relationship begins prior to time of contact with a patient, the interpersonal skills of the nurse; then the process includes skills required by the nurse to communicate effectively, including respect, trust, non-judgment and empathy. The way to portray these skills can be via verbal or non-verbal cues that are important to understand how they influence a person.
When I decide to become a nurse, in my heart, I knew that I was a compassionate person; however, I didn’t know I have a caring theory driving my life. After studying the Swanson’s Theory of Caring, the theory is consistent with my moral values, which highlight the overall definition of caring in nursing practice. This theory affirms that caring turns around five categories: knowing, being with, doing for, enabling, and maintaining belief (Potter & Perry; 2017). Once applied to nursing practice, each of these five categories can fuel the caregiver 's attitude and improve in general patient well-being.
A nurse requires empathy and not sympathy in order to maintain a healthy therapeutic relationship with the client. Being sympathetic to a client will not benefit them and cause poor adaptation to their situation. Furthermore, it can impede their progression toward a successful recovery. With that said, using sympathetic approaches is ineffective in that it only aims the client to feel better but not get better. On the other hand, empathy is more productive and powerful in that it opens a door that encourages clients to share the burden of their fears and anxieties of an uncertain future (Sealy, 2011).
Postpartum depression has always been a hot topic in healthcare due to the factor that in impacts so many lives. Postpartum depression is characterized by feelings of extreme sadness, stress, loneliness, anxiety, being irritable and agitated, fear, and misery, worthlessness, having no interest in your baby and in some cases wanting to harm the baby (NIMH,2016). Postpartum depression is a very common mental illness which falls in the category of a mood disorder that affects every 1 in 7 women after child birth (APA, 2016). Postpartum depression is very important to mental health nursing because the mother and baby are at risk for death. It is important for the nurse to recognize the signs and symptoms of postpartum before something dangerous
During my care, I was not interacting with the patient rather I was ignoring her statements. Although I was listening attentively and demonstrating attending behaviours by maintaining eye contact and appropriate nonverbal cues I was not connected to her verbally. It is important that there is client-centered communication to make the patient feel comfortable at all times. When the patient was discussing her pain I did not ask the appropriate questions. It is crucial that nurses respond to client empathetically and in a knowledgeable manner (Maruca et al., 2015). Responding to the patient makes them feel understood. In this particular situation because the patient was discussing her pain, I should have assessed her pain. My main focus during the transfer was completing the task and I was unaware of what was happening around me. Empathy often is lost in nursing student in the clinical settings as they become more focused on their professional skills (Maruca et al., 2015). However, if I had felt more competent about my skills I would have been more able to focus less on the task and more on the patient’s feelings. I was not considering the patient’s feelings and was more concerned with my own which was very selfish of me. It is important to gain insight into what the patient is experiencing, what the illness
He does a good job digging deeper to inquire where/ when she received the offer.
I want so bad to help them see that there is hope, that they have so much to live for. I am literally in the process of learning that I can be myself. Having compassion and empathy doesn’t mean feeling what the patient is feeling; having compassion and empathy simply requires seeing them for who they are, being present with them, and being who I am. I think compassion and empathy in these times looks like coming with no agenda. We understand people more when we seek to understand, rather than seek to be understood. My approach is quickly and currently being molded to one filled with taking the time to see people as they are and listen well. We as nurses (and as people) will not be able to give our patients a reason to live, unless we first take the time to learn why they want to die. Healing needs to come in different ways for
The healthcare industry has been making efforts to ameliorate the delivery of efficient and affordable services. While the positioning of efficiency and affordability is becoming superior, quality of patient care should remain as the primary emphasis of healthcare. Studies have discovered a strong connection between compassion and the delivery of quality patient care. There is a rising accord that compassion in health and community care is necessary, yet it is uncertain on how compassion is perceived of in this field (Crawford 2014, Dewar et al. 2014). There are also concerns that high-quality compassionate care is not consistently delivered across health
Caring practice refers to the activities that a nurse performs in creating a supportive and therapeutic environment. These activities have a goal towards promoting health, decreasing suffering and providing comfort to clients, such activities include but are not limited to: engagement, responsiveness, inclusion of clients and anticipatory knowledge (AACN, 2016; Kaplow, 2003, p. 30; Kaplow & Reed, 2008, p. 21). The importance of analyzing the caring practice characteristic in the context of SBS is from the frontline worker features of nurses. As mentioned previously, the postpartum stage of parenting begins in environments where nurses are most involved (Bechtel, Le, Martin, Shah, Leventhal, & Colson, 2011, p. 481), allowing nurses to be on
The current empathy crisis in healthcare is a growing epidemic across the world, and medical schools are rushing to find a solution. As twenty-first century medicine focuses on patient-centered care, studies have indicated that the implementation of standardized communication protocols and the increasing use of biomedical technologies are making many patients feel increasingly disconnected from their doctors. Furthermore, there is paradox in modern medical training. The constant testing and assessment of clinical skills is forcing students to experience burnout; ultimately, they struggle to keep up with the rigorous demands of medical school. Somewhere in these early stages of medical education, the compassionate care is lost.
Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. As a potential nursing and social work student, empathy is an important trait I need to learn and develop. After graduating in May of 2018, I plan to attend Kansas State University to study Pre-Nursing and Social Work; then, I intend to transfer to a nursing school, either Baker School of Nursing or Washburn University. Both nurses and social workers must care deeply about their patients, using skills such as patience, kindness, and empathy. A career in nursing stands out to me because I want to impact people’s lives in a positive way. Oftentimes, patients encounter nurses in a hospital or office for unfortunate reasons, such as sickness or discomfort. A nurse focuses on