Extract
[...] The author mentions emotional intelligence, and it's Salovey and Mayer, who were the first to introduce the concept of emotional intelligence. They define it as the ability to identify, understand, manage, and use our emotions. In terms of nursing care, Phaneuf (2012), considers that emotional intelligence allows to improve the caregiver-patient relationship: « She has a marked influence on our behavior and human evolution since it allows us to know ourselves, question ourselves and improve, to become more accomplished and better caregivers. [...]
[...] In fact, on the one hand, he must maintain a certain proximity in his interactions with these potentially violent patients, in order to ensure a high-quality relational care, and on the other hand, he is constantly exposed to the risk of violent behaviors from them, which can put him in danger. As a result, the right to exercise his profession in safe working conditions can therefore go against the provision of quality care required of the caregiver's function, which can ultimately lead to ethical dilemmas. Thus, different emotional reactions, such as fear and anger, strongly influence the ways in which nurses perceive aggressive patients and interact with them. (Hellzen O. et al. 2004)5 (Kindy D. [...]
[...] To achieve this, there are many recommendations and reflections on this topic. Whether from the perspective of psychoanalysis or psychology, the emotional work is thus considered essential in a high-quality caregiver-patient relationship. This latter has two dimensions: the caregiver's management of their own emotions (keeping calm), and the caregiver's attempt to induce desirable emotions in the patient, allowing for easier care (calming their anxiety or aggression). However, violence in the psychiatric environment can constitute a real threat to the caregiver's safety and personal integrity (physical, mental). [...]
[...] When the situation involves a high emotional stake, as Margot Phaneuf (2012) points out, to be in a helping relationship, the nurse must be willing to open up to the patient's experience. This requires from her a ability to 'know herself in order to better use her resources and distinguish how' her 'personal characteristics influence the quality of the relationship'11. The 'self-awareness' will allow the professional to have a deep knowledge of their own emotions, but also of their strengths and weaknesses, and their own values. [...]
[...] 2011)2 As highlighted Philippe Svandra (2011)3 « to be received at the patient's 'home, it's, for us, therapists, to come into vulnerability, outside of any protective professional wall, to do our job.' He clarifies that far from the affirmation that the anxiety and vulnerability of the caregiver and the patient overlap or are similar, care must first be considered as a meeting during which each protagonist is successively or sometimes even simultaneously, anxious and vulnerable In this sense Needham I. (2006) He clarifies that in the specific context of psychiatric care and particularly during episodes of violence, the caregiver's desire to preserve their own safety and that of others is a variable that significantly impacts their relationship with the patient. The author emphasizes that due to their role as caregivers, nursing staff are then faced with a duality in their care activities. [...]
