Choosing to relate to uncertainty
• Nursing is always uncertain. You can’t predict exactly how a patient will respond.
(no cause -> effect linear)
• Many things affect what happens: the patient’s feelings, your actions, the
environment, and bigger social or health factors.
• Even if you are kind or follow all the correct steps, there’s no guarantee the
outcome will be exactly what you expect.
• Your choice and control is in how you act and relate to the patient, but not in the
final result.
• Nursing is complicated because every situation is unique, and multiple things
interact at once.
• BUT we can choose to direct our attention in ways that are responsive, health
promoting, and in line with our nursing values.
4. Choosing to relate to well being
• Any relation has the potential to promote well-being or potentiate harm.
• Relational experiences can be health interventions. (When someone had “bad”
healthcare experience = carrying the wounds from those experiences; when
someone had good experience= the impact it had and continues to have”
• Ensures you are meeting your nursing obligations to promote well-being by the way
you are relating.
5. Taking a Nursing standpoint
• Because our actions can have an effect on the outcome, we can ask ourselves how
can we take a nursing standpoint in that particular moment. By doing so we can
focus on the well-being of people in their health/illness = medical intervention +
disease treatment.
