Importance of Self-Awareness for Nurses: Opinion Essay

Eckroth-Bucher (2010), defines self-awareness as “the cognitive exploration of own thoughts, feelings, beliefs, values, behaviours, and the feedback from others.” (p. 297). Therefore, in essence if nurses have self-awareness in regards to their own life, they can then translate this into their field of work as they will have better understanding of the patients wants/needs. Practical ways of developing nurses self-awareness can be through utilising psychodrama techniques and, reflecting on objective feedback in regards to their actions.

Self-awareness is important for growth. When nurses know their unique strengths and limitations, they’re better equipped to face challenges, and, make decisions. However, if nurses lack self-awareness, they repeat their mistakes, preventing growth. For example, nurses need to be aware of how to care for patient/communicate with a variety of different patients. This can be developed through the use of psychodrama techniques. This is an important technique which nurses can use to improve self-awareness in patient care settings. This technique helps nurses understand themselves and, discover the viewpoints of others. In doing so, this will enable nurses to understand the different perspectives that different patients hold.

Self-awareness is also important, as it is a dynamic and transformative process of self-reflection and change. It is really important that nurses understand and reflect on the impact of their verbal/non-verbal gestures, as this can negatively impact nurse-patient relationships. This is because if nurses are not aware of how they react they might endanger their nurse-patient relationship. Winson outlines “Unconscious body language, uncontrolled emotions and lack of insight are potentially harmful” (Winson, 2007, p. 59) highlighting that it’s important for nurses to have self-awareness in regards to their actions. Nurses can develop their self-awareness by identifying where they are in the Johari model by Luft and Ingham, 1955. The model outlines that the wider the open quadrant is, the more self-aware i.e. the nurse is. Nurses can utilise this model by objectively examining and then pinpointing their self on the grid by utilising feedback to decrease their hidden, blind and unknown quadrants.

Self-awareness is also important because, a nurse cares for patients from different sociocultural backgrounds and different value systems. As such, it is imperative that nurses have self-awareness. This is because different groups have different healthcare requirements as such, nurses need to be able to adapt to effectively personalise care to different types of patients as everybody is unique. This can be developed through understanding and recognising sociocultural differences through educating their self on the distinctive types of sociocultural backgrounds that exist. Doing so will enable nurses to effectively personalise their methods to suit different sociocultural backgrounds thereby, enabling them to form a stronger patient relationship.

In conclusion, self-awareness is important for nurses in the formation of stronger nurse-patient relationships as well as for their own personal growth and development of their clinical skills. Furthermore, through learning about the different sociocultural that exists, objectively examining and reflecting on their own actions and through the use of psychodrama techniques are just a few ways in which a nurse can effectively improve their self-awareness. This is important because, the more self-aware the nurse is the better equipped