Question

1. What do you think of nurse taking a of decision to care for a patient that they overidentify with? What would you have done in this situation? Who could you turn to for support and guidance in this situation? How do you feel about telling the truth to patients? How important is it for patients to know the truth? Why do you think the physician would not tell Stan and Helen the truth about Stan's condition?

2. Think about what you do NOW to care for yourself. What are those things? If you don't practice self-care consistently, what would you LIKE to do on a regular basis that you know would help care for yourself physically and emotionally?

Answer 1

Overidentifying means to identify too much about a person. As a nurse , one of the principle that she should follow is sympathy, empathy but overidentification is an extreme form wherein the nurse might loose her own perspective while taking care of a patient. It might harm the emotional intelligence of the nurse which can lead to loosing her self and not able to identify the boundries which she had to set to keep herself safe.

Hospital is a place wherein there is lot of suffering and a person can land up in emotional turmiol. In all this instances, an emotionally strong nurse would do everything in her ability to help the patient knowing her boundries and limitation and trusting in other health care workers with their efficiency in their jobs.

1.a. A nurse who is overidentifying with a patient should be counselled and helped to identify the difference between sympathy, empathy and overidentification. She should be alerted about her behavior which might prove harmful to her.

1.b. As a coworker, I would try taking to her. If not helpful, I will alert the team leaders or incharge nurses about the same.

1.c. To support and help, the first person to approach would be seniors, team leaders, incharge nurses and if nothing help, would reach out to HR.

1.d. Veracity is a principle of nursing to be followed. It is important for the patient to know the truth and that truth is helping in the patients recover. It is important to keep the patient informed and updated everything that has happened and might happen.

1.e. I feel that the physician might not tell Stan and Helen about their condition possibly due to overidentifying patients needs. The physician is one of the prime members of the healthcare team who is supposed to inform the patients about their health condition and treatment process and all the physicians will do it.

2. To care for myself as a nurse, i would take few days off from my work, try to reset my realistic boundries, reorient about My values, goals and objectives of being a nurse, confine myself with the stages of therapeutic communication and principles of nurse patient relationship. I would like to join a support group system or approach the HR to set up such system to debrief themselves from such emotional encounters.

2.b. for a regular basis self care, I would give priority to self care in form of optimum nutrition, regular exercise and practice spirituality to maintain a work life balance. From hospital help, I would take nurse peer coaching, join support groups organized by HR. In case of still not able to cope, I would go for a psychological review to set my perspective right.