Importance of Self Awareness in Psychiatric Nursing

 A Discussion of Psychiatric Nurses Responsibility in Importance of Self-Awareness

A Discussion of Psychiatric Nurses Responsibility in Attention to Self-Awareness

Self awareness can be considered a valuable attribute in many aspects of life; however, in the role of a Psychiatric Nurse, its importance is elevated as the work environment due to the significance of building therapeutic relationships. Self-awareness is defined as being “cognizant of one’s own beliefs, thought motivations, biases, physical and emotional limitations and impact one may have on others” (Austin and Boyd, 2008). This is especially important in psychiatric nursing because as a nurse I believe self-awareness becomes a responsibility. As a responsibility I believe there are three main components. Nurses have an obligation to care, to be mindful, and to be a leader. Jack, 2008 argues “self-awareness should be compulsory in the health professions”. This is a valid argument because Patterson, Curtis and  Reid, 2008 states “self-awareness will help nurses to cope effectively with the emotional pressures inevitable in a caring situation and lead to a more satisfactory and higher-quality care service.” This essay will discuss the importance and components of the responsibility related to self-awareness.  

Caring

        In the fundamentals of psychiatric nursing class I have learned that caring is an important trait to be a psychiatric nurse. Patterson, Curtis and Reid, 2008 says having both a passion for mental health nursing and a professional attitude are critical to be able to tolerate the distress related to nursing and continuing to provide quality care. In order to care I believe one must be very tolerant of behaviours, ethnicities, and values of others. For example a nurse may not agree with the choice in clients clothing, or perhaps a patient sticking a pencil up their nose but a nurse must be able to tolerate and not appear perturbed by it.

        Another component of caring is to show empathy. Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another (Oxford Dictionary, 2010). This is important in psychiatric nursing because I learned in interpersonal communication empathy is an important component to build and maintain a therapeutic relationship. For example, a patient might be upset due to their pet dying. As the definition said you would relate to the statement and rephrase what the patient said to prove you understand. I have come to understand empathy requires self awareness because you need to be aware of how what the client is saying makes you feel and be able to show genuine concern.

Mindfulness

Another component of the responsibility of self-awareness is mindfulness. “Mindfulness implies nonjudgmental acceptance as one consciously and with open-heartedness accepts self, invests in the present moment, and attends to life experiences afresh” (Scheick , 2011) . This is an excellent definition to mindfulness because it goes it shows how similar mindfulness is to self-awareness. “Practicing mindfulness fosters self-awareness that reflects inwardly, staying attentive and aware of self, while also hearing and non-judgmentally caring about others. With self-aware mindfulness, the nurse learns something new about self and life, accepts self, embraces uncertainty, invites discovery, and invests one's fully alive, nonjudgmental self in healing nurse-client relationships” (Scheick , 2011). This proves in order to be mindful it is important to be aware of your thoughts.

It is also important to be aware of your feelings to prevent counter transference because “Emotional burden in caring setting may change the behaviour of nurses towards their patients” (Oflaz, Meriç, Yuksel, Ozcan, 2011). Being self-aware will help nurses to cope effectively with emotions inevitable in a caring situation and lead to a more higher-quality, exceptional care service according to Oflaz, Meriç, Yuksel, Ozcan, 2011. Having control and awareness over your thoughts and feeling proves mindfulness is an important component of self-awareness.