Ian Peate - The Nursing Associate at a Glance

At the point of registration, the Nursing Associate will be able to:understand and explain the meaning of resilience and emotional intelligence, and their influence on an individual’s ability to provide care.

Table 8.1 Four factors of emotional intelligence (Source: Hefferman 2010).

Remember, you are only able to provide the best care for others when you are also taking care of yourself.

In 1990 Salovey and Mayer defined emotional intelligence as ‘the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions’. Those who are emotionally intelligent are able to use, understand as well as manage their feelings in such a way that it can benefit themselves and others.

The concept of emotional intelligence has been identified as being separate from academic intelligence and is required for a person to be successful in the practicalities of life. It is recognised that emotional intelligence is an essential requirement for nursing and other healthcare staff and that some are not aware of this concept or able to identify how they can best manage their own emotions. It is possible for individuals to increase and also further develop their emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence includes:

Feeling but also correctly identifying emotions, both in oneself and in others

Using these emotions to assist reasoning

Having the capability to understand feelings

Managing one’s emotions

Controlling emotional situations.

Development of emotional intelligence can have positive results on several levels. It requires the Nursing Associate to engage in self‐reflection and work on oneself; this is not always easy to do. A number of tools are available to assess emotional intelligence. Seeking feedback on behaviour and evaluating how others react to our behaviour can help monitor our own and the feelings and the emotions of others. Using the information gained from feedback helps to guide our thinking and action.

Those who are emotionally intelligent perceive themselves as confident, and they are better able to understand, control and manage their own emotions. Four factors of emotional intelligence have been identified:

1 Well‐being

2 Self‐control

3 Emotionality

4 Sociability (see Table 8.1).

Resilience is associated with the capacity to accurately perceive and respond well to situations that are stressful. Resilience is demonstrated, not only in times of crisis, but on a daily basis.

The Royal College of Nursing suggest that being resilient is about being able to endure setbacks, frustrations and personal misfortunes. During a crisis, the person who is resilient will endeavour to do their best to handle and deal with events calmly, with grace, patience, acceptance and hope. The person who is less resilient may respond with anger, panic, frustration and impatience, and they might see themselves as the victim. Seven key areas that help make a person resilient include the following:

1 Taking care of own basic needs. Making sure you look after yourself and your health and that you are eating well‐balanced meals and sleeping well.

2 Having emotional stability. Caring for ill people can bring with it uncomfortable and difficult emotions.

3 Having confidence along with self‐esteem, as well as a belief in your ability to manage negative setbacks is at the heart of being resilient.

4 Seeking social support. Strong relationships and support networks are key to coping with challenging situations. People are there to help you and want to help, so ensure you let them.

5 Speaking your truth.

6 Seeking insight. When you come across a challenging situation, regardless of why the situation arose, being aware of what led to it might help you change your behaviour and take a different path next time. Engage with emotional intelligence.

7 Having faith. Difficult situations can often bring a crisis of faith.

As a Nursing Associate, being resilient is important, as caring for people can be physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually demanding. This can bring with it pressure, and your well‐being can suffer.

At the point of registration, the Nursing Associate will be able to:communicate effectively using a range of skills and strategies with colleagues and people at all stages of life and with a range of mental, physical, cognitive and behavioural health challenges.

When next on a practice placement, take time to consider how someone with a cognitive impairment might find it difficult to understand a care procedure. This could be due to a learning difficulty, dementia, impairment due to a head injury or stroke or a perceptual disturbance due to a psychotic illness.

Identify a particular procedure that you believe may be confusing to the patient, and think of how you can use a variety of different and appropriate communication aids to help the person better understand their care

Observe and take notes (with permission) during a care interaction episode with a child, young person and their family. In particular make notes on how the care interaction episode was terminated: how was it brought to a close?

Consider, for example, how the health or social care professional made verbal and non‐verbal signs that the interaction was ending. What was the response of the child, young person and their family? Was an opportunity given for the child, young person and their family to ask questions? Was there any follow‐up?

Would you make any changes as to how the interaction was closed, and if so, why? Did you identify any factors that impacted the communication positively?

Reflect on one of your practice placements, where a health or social work practitioner had to deliver bad news to a person (and their family) with a chronic and long‐term condition. There are several accepted ways to break bad news. Using the mnemonic SPIKES can help. In the grid, did you identify any components of the mnemonic?

Table 9.1 Communication exercise SPIKES (Source: adapted Webb, 2011).