Transcript Using the Self to Promote Health

Using the Self to Promote
Health
Chapter 2
Objectives
• To consider the overall aim of helping
• To explore the behaviors that interfere with
effective helping
• To identify some of the characteristics of
helping communication
• To distinguish empathy from related
interpersonal interactions
• To reveal the characteristics of effective
helpers
What is the overall aim of helping?
• Balancing self-reliance with the ability to
ask for help strengthens an adult’s
confidence and self-esteem
• If the nurse relies on giving advice, the pt
may become resentful or angry
• If the nurse has a need to be told how
helpful or irreplaceable he/she is—the pt’s
needs become secondary.
What is the overall aim of helping?
• No one can take responsibility for another
person
• We can only take responsibility for
ourselves
Therefore the overall aim of helping
is to assist the client in becoming
self-sufficient
Therapeutic Communication
• How you view yourself will markedly affect your
communication with patients
• BE FULLY PRESENT—totally focused on the
patient and his/her ideas about the situation
• LISTEN—with the whole self and clarify your
interpretations
• SPEAK—articulate well-thought out ideas of
patient in the healing process
• DEVELOP TRUST
Terminology
• Sympathy involves having similar feelings about
something
• Pity is probably never appropriate because it
involves condescension “You poor thing”
• Identification can interfere with healing
communication also as the nurse can lose track
of her/his role
Terminology, con’t…
• Empathy is always helpful as it involves
perceiving a situation from the client’s
perspective as well as sensing the client’s
feelings
Levels of Intimacy
• Level Five: Cliché Conversation (eg: “Have a
nice day”, “It’s nice to see you”)
• Level Four: Reporting Facts
• Level Three: Personal Ideas and Judgments
• Level Two: Feelings and Emotions
• Level One: Peak Communication
Levels of Intimacy in
Professional Interaction
• Therapeutic communication may go to a
Level 2 but never a level one.
• This would cross boundaries in which the
nurse may loose objectivity and patient
may become confused about roles
Summary
• The more a nurse fully comprehends the
importance of the nature of helping, the more
the nurse will become committed to the growth
required for consistent therapeutic use of self
• Practice and study are necessary to achieve this
• Discussing confusing interactions with a mentor
or experienced colleague can be very helpful in
preventing errors in judgment or at least learning
from experiences so that they will not be
repeated.