Caring in Nursing

00:00 So when we're talking about caring, caring behaviors and building relationships are really important for our client's health, so it's important here that we get to know the client. So knowing the client is at the core of the process that helps us make clinical decisions and plan of care for our patient. And don't forget about their spiritual health and this can be achieved when we find a balance between their life values, their goals, and their treatment decisions and work with our clients in this regard. Now, supporting the family is also important because caring does not occur in isolation from the client's family. They're an integral resource for the client and the nurse. Now, don't forget when we're talking about caring behaviors, it's so important to be present. So just be with the patient, give passive eye contact, watch your body language. If I'm listening to a client with my arms crossed, it doesn't give a good feeling or a message of being present. Watch your tone of voice, making sure you're passive and you're encouraging with your client. Another important caring behavior is providing a caring touch. So this can be contact or no contact, sometimes just placing a hand over a shoulder and listening. I don't want to underestimate the power of listening in a caring behavior for a client. This creates a good atmosphere, sometimes helps engage in the conversation, and sometimes there is not much for us as a healthcare provider to do but sit down with the client and listen to their concerns. Now as you can imagine, there are so many barriers to caring such as nurse to client ratios. As you can imagine if we have a high patient number for a nurse that day, it's really hard to sit down and provide good relationships or listen or to provide therapeutic touch. Now sometimes technology, as you can imagine, can also be a barrier. One instance of this is I know sometimes there's a lot of charting that happens when you go to your healthcare provider, so sometimes it kind of feels like when they're charting and they're looking at the computer and trying to chart but talk to you. This can definitely be a barrier in eye contact maybe the conversation, for example. So also don't forget that there's important knowledge based on training that also is important in regards to therapeutic holistic care that encompasses caring. And don't forget sometimes as a nurse when we're going throughout our day and going through our tasks, sometimes we get so honed in on all the things that we have to do that we forget to slow down and provide that caring relationship and caring behaviors. And of course interruptions. As a nurse throughout the shift, there are many, but be conscious of that that you take time later, when available, to providing caring behaviors to produce a good relationship.