Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing The Craft of Caring 2nd Edition Textbook

Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing The Craft of Caring 2nd Edition Study Guide

When one isn’t dominated by feelings of separateness
from what he’s working on, then one can be
said to ‘care’ about what he is doing. That is what
caring really is, a feeling of identification with what
one’s doing.
Robert Pirsig
The practice of nursing involves doing something that
appears quite ‘ordinary’, in highly extraordinary settings
and circumstances. Nurses care for people who, for different
reasons, are unable or unwilling to care for themselves.
In one sense, caring is hardly ‘rocket science’.
‘Anyone could do it’ has become an increasingly popular
cry, especially among economists and bureaucrats anxious
to reduce the financial cost of caring. There is some
truth in this. At least in principle, anyone could care for
someone else. This often involves nothing more complex
than giving one’s time, sitting and talking with the person,
sharing some of the load of the person’s life. What
could be simpler?
Like many things in life, the simple stuff often turns
out to be the most complex. Nursing, as a professional
discipline, differs greatly from the ‘ordinary caring’ provided
by a friend or a relative. The difference is in the
context. Caring for a friend or a relative is a moral duty or
obligation, where the carer and the cared for are united
by blood ties or the loyalty of love. Nurses often are
required to care for people who have been abandoned by
everyone else, or who may, for one reason or another, be
difficult to care for, far less care about. Usually, nurses
care for more than one person at a time, dealing with
competing demands and often rapidly changing priorities.
Such contextual challenges transform the ordinary
act of human kindness into the extraordinary discipline of
human caring.
In this section we begin with a consideration of the
nature of nursing itself; how its meaning has changed over
the years; and what is special about psychiatric and mental
health nursing.
This leads, naturally, to a reflection on the challenges
of ‘getting personal’. How do nurses go about getting
close to people in their care, getting to know them as
persons and the nature of their unique human needs?
The profession of nursing, known by different names
around the world, did not emerge out of a vacuum, but is
merely the latest stage in the history of caring, which dates
back centuries.We shall consider how things have changed
down the years and what caring values remain intact.
Understanding the value of nursing, and the evidence
that signals an appreciation of its worth, is central to current
developments in the field. However, the nature of
evidence has become a vexed issue, often confused by
ideology or political bias. A careful consideration of what
evidence is and is not, will help the discipline clarify
further its caring focus.
Debate has raged for at least a generation over whether
nursing is an art or a science. This book raises an alternative
perspective, the concept of nursing as craft is considered,
and some critical thought is given to how we might manage
the development of this craft in the complex world
of practice.
Finally, we turn full circle to connect again with the
people who might need nursing and who, given their status,
might help nurses clarify the proper focus of their
craft. These contributions are framed positively, emphasizing
how nurses might aid and abet the recovery
process, helping people to reclaim ownership of lives
blighted or overtaken by mental distress.
The last two contributions in this section are the most
important – reminding us of the genuine purpose of nursing.
What – ultimately – is nursing for, if not to enable
people to take back ownership of their lives