Compassionate Interaction as Medium of Care for Depressed Patients
It is my belief that patient care does not only need a viable technique in accomplishing the different procedure but should have a deeper mode of delivery to achieve necessary goals. The nurse-patient relationship initiates a connection, in which nurses establish professional interaction with their patient, to gain foundation in promoting and determining the different potentialities and actual needs. This dynamics makes the nurse’s goal of maintenance of health, restoration of health, or maximizing the capacities of the patient to recovery, clearer and more attainable.
The basis of appropriate nursing care relies on more than a nurse’s motivations; accompanying these is the essence of compassion, which is a mode of delivering care in a continuous process. Also, nurses are looking for the opportunity to work in a practice setting where standard nursing practice and principles of compassionate care jive, in which the patient’s health attainment becomes the ultimate goal.
Nursing is based on the innate ability of caring for the patient, which forms the root of compassion. It is an active involvement, not a passive position. It means having a support mechanism so that preceptorship and clinical supervision may have a role in facilitating compassionate care. The concept of compassionate interaction in alleviating negative emotion in depressed patients is also being discussed by some theorists as part of the concept of care concerning the patient’s state of emotional health. Nurse-patient interaction initiates the establishment of a relationship, which brings the concept of compassion in care.
Wright (2004) argued that “personal, professional, and healthcare agendas seem to draw us ever further away from the heart of nursing”. He suggested that activities considered to be intellectually demanding, such as managerial and technical aspects of care, are perceived as more important than “hands-on” care. Inputs of proper emotional contact with patient should include “hands on” care, thus making compassionate interaction more specified. King, in her Goal Attainment theory, discussed perceptual congruence and transaction on the nurse-patient interaction that leads to goal attainment. It specifically addresses how nurses interact with patients to achieve health goals, including concepts of interaction, perception communication, transaction, growth, and development.
Nursing is caring for the patient with an innate sense of compassion. Some view compassion as being linked to caring behavior and continuously evolving through the help of different studies and research. Compassion is an interaction rooted in the social mentality theory—an evolutionary-based approach to social motivation and competencies. This suggests that compassionate behavior evolved out of the care-giving mentality. As such, it utilizes and patterns a variety of motivational, emotional, and cognitive competencies that are care-focused. These competencies organize our minds in certain ways, thus acquiring the name compassionate mind or mentality, referring to compassionate mind training as compared to viewing it as a focused schema. As professionals working for another’s benefit, compassion is a mentality that everyone must understand, and also practice. To involve one’s self in patient care is merely accomplishing a nurse’s duty, but affecting them through modes of care is more than that.
REFERENCE:
American Nurses association. Standards of Clinical Nursing Practice.
Eynde, M. V. (2005). Reflection on Martha Nussbaum’s Work on Compassion from a Buddhist Perspective. Faculty of Theology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Germany
Gilbert , P. (2007)Psychotherapy and Counseling for Depression, Sage publication, London, p. 165-166
Kim, S. (2007). Nursing theories: conceptual & philosophical foundations, Mosby Publ;ishing
King, I. M. (1982). A Theory of Nursing: Systems, Concept, Process, East Norwalk, Appleton-Century Crofts, Connecticut
Tomey, A. M. and Alligood, M. R. (2007). Nursing theorists and their work. Mosby publishing, St. Louis, Missouri
Sitzman, K. (2006). Understanding the work of nurse theorists: a creative beginning, Jones and Barlett Publishing
