Which art of nursing attribute is defined as being there for and in tune with the patient

A compassionate nurse is empathetic to the pain and suffering of her patients, which is vital to the patients’ well-being. Compassionate care makes patients more comfortable when they’re in pain, feeling ill or suffering from mental or emotional stress. By demonstrating compassion, you provide your patients with the support and confidence they need to prepare for a lengthy recovery, face a frightening surgical procedure or fight a devastating disease.

Compassion in Nursing Definition

Defining compassion is difficult with everyone forming their own personal definition of the word, but Merriam-Webster defines it as sympathetic awareness of another’s distress combined with a desire to alleviate it. In the world of nursing, compassionate care isn’t simply about relieving suffering but “entering into a patient’s experience and enabling them to retain their independence and dignity.”

Importance of being a compassionate nurse

Compassion in nursing takes a nurse from competent care that includes the required skills and knowledge to treat their patients to outwardly caring through actions and deeds that involve the emotional aspects of the relationship. A nurse’s compassionate care can affect a patient’s outcome, advises Becca Koplowitz, Nurse Advocate at Murse World, an online company providing men's scrubs.

“The nurse's compassion is an invaluable aspect of care,” states Koplowitz, “because it provides patients with emotional support, which can lessen depression and strengthen the patient's will to survive.”

Compassionate nursing is broadly associated with caring actions. Examples of compassion in nursing include:

• Being empathetic to better understand what your patients are going through
• Getting to know your patients to better understand their needs
• Giving patients someone to talk to, which is especially important for patients who don’t have family or friends to lean on
• Being an active listener when patients discuss their health issues or complaints, which also helps you pick up on unspoken concerns
• Solidifying your bond with patients by following up with their health concerns or complaints
• Providing emotional support during critical times of your patient’s treatment and recovery
• Using a positive voice and body language to imbue confidence in your patients about their eventual recovery
• Knocking on the door before entering to show patients respect, dignity and a modicum of privacy where privacy is often limited
• Taking time to explain tests and procedures and answering your patients’ questions, so they feel important
• Helping relieve your patients’ concerns, so they can concentrate on getting well

Benefits of compassionate nursing

Being a compassionate nurse not only benefits the patient, it also benefits the nurse. Nurses more concerned about their patients’ well-being and the pain and fear they feel typically enjoy their jobs more and feel more connected to their careers. 

Providing emotional support to your patients can also offer tremendous self-gratification, but take care to not fall victim to compassion fatigue. When caring for your patients becomes too much of an emotional drain, you could experience a mix of emotional, physical and behavioral symptoms; mental and physical exhaustion; and emotional withdrawal.

Visit American Mobile to find a position in the travel nursing field and put your nursing skills and compassionate care to work.

Ways to display warmth to your clients and colleagues

Warmth is displayed primarily in a nonverbal manner. Subtle facial and body signs, as well as gestures (small movements of a hand, brow, or eye), convey our inner relaxation and attentiveness to another person (Table 7-1).

Table 7-1

Facial Signals of Warmth

There is a lot that you do with your face to convey warmth. When you are talking to another person, attention is largely focused on the face, so it is important to know how to make facial expressions that maximize your warmth.

During interaction, your face can communicate information regarding your personality, interests, and responsiveness, as well as your emotional state. Your facial expression can open or close a conversation. The context, including the relationship, determines the meaning of facial expressions. Also, the degree of facial expressiveness varies among individuals and cultures. In relationships with clients and colleagues, it is wise to remember that although people from other cultures may not express emotions (such as warmth) openly, this does not mean that they do not experience these emotions.

Americans express themselves to varying degrees. People from certain ethnic backgrounds in the United States may use their hands, bodies, and faces more than others. Warmth can be expressed in a variety of ways, but to have a poker face or deadpan expression is usually considered suspicious.

We may interpret insufficient or excessive eye contact as communication barriers. No specific rules govern eye behavior, except that to stare, especially at strangers, is considered rude. Eye contact can have different meanings in different cultures.

Your posture can communicate warmth. Movements or ways of holding yourself that encourage communication and indicate interest and pleasure in being with the other person constitute warmth (Table 7-2). The list in Table 7-2 may sound like your mother telling you to sit up straight at dinner, yet the details provide solid guidelines for communicating the warmth you feel even if you are anxious.

Table 7-2

Postural Signals of Warmth

Warmth indicators include a shift of posture toward the other person, a smile, direct eye contact, and motionless hands. In a study by Knapp (1980), gestures such as looking around the room, slumping, drumming fingers, and looking glum detract from warmth. In a dialogue situation, positive warmth cues, coupled with verbal reinforcers such as “mm-hmm,” are effective in increasing verbal output from the interviewee (whereas verbal cues alone are insufficient). These findings from an early study have implications for nursing, in which so much client information is gathered through interviewing.

Purtilo and Haddad (2002) pointed out that in addition to whole-body posturing and positioning, gestures involving the extremities—even one finger—can suggest the meaning of a message. Think about how the following gestures would affect your message of warmth: shrugging your shoulders, folding your arms over your chest, rolling your thumb, shuffling your foot, or silently clenching your fist. Even if other parts of your body are focused on conveying warmth, these partial gestures might minimize or erase the message of warmth you are trying to send.

Remember not all gestures have universal meaning. A wink or a hand gesture may not be received in the same mood of warmth in which it is delivered. For example, the American “OK” sign (circle made with thumb and forefinger) is a symbol for money in Japan and is considered obscene in some Latin American countries.

The spatial distance or closeness we create between us and our clients and colleagues can affect the perception of warmth. For Americans, distance in social conversation is about an arm’s length to 4 feet. In our exuberance to display warmth, we may invade this unseen but well-defined circumference. Not all clients or colleagues feel comforted by this gesture; some may feel intruded upon, and others may feel threatened and act defensively.

Touching is another way to affectionately transmit warmth. From the briefest pat on the shoulder to an embracing hug or extended hand, you can convey warmth to others. Your comfort or lack of comfort with touch is communicated. The gentle, sincere touch of your hand can express warmth, caring, and comfort (Reynolds, 2002; Gleeson, 2004).

Warmth can be conveyed verbally as well as nonverbally. The volume of the voice is related to warmth. Softer, modulated tones convey warmth more than loud, aggressive tones that are harsh to the ears. A pitch that seems comfortable for the speaker transmits warmth more than an unnatural pitch that seems to be out of the speaker’s range. The pacing of words is also important. Pressured, stilted, or stoic speech detracts from the warmth that can be conveyed through rhythmic speech, whose pacing is in keeping with the speaker’s natural breathing. The actual words also have the power to extend warmth to others. Loving, soft words are warmer than harsh, thoughtless words: “So, you’ve never exercised before and now you think you’ll become a ‘super-jock’ and take up jogging?” is cold and judgmental compared with “You’d like to improve your fitness level so you’re taking a new lease on life and learning to jog.”

As you may have noticed, many of the features of warmth are those of a relaxed person. Not only must you be relaxed, but you can communicate warmth only when you have a genuine interest in the other person and a wish to convey that welcome and pleasure to him or her. A desire to be warm is based on the belief that each person you encounter is worthy of receiving the acceptance and comfort that your warmth generates. The ability to be warm was so valued by a psychiatric facility in Surrey, England, that it was included in an online recruitment ad. When you display high-level warmth, you are completely and intensely attentive to the interaction between yourself and your clients or colleagues, making them feel accepted and important. The opposite—cold behavior—conveys disapproval or disinterest.

Which nursing concept is being practiced when the nurse sits with a patient who is afraid quizlet?

What attribute of the art of nursing is defined as being there for and in tune with the client quizlet?

In which type of study are participants randomly assigned either to receive one of the clinical interventions or to receive no treatment?

Which concept is related to the art of nursing quizlet?