Individual Nurse’s Holistic Preparedness
By listening actively and openly to client
communication about the pain experience,
caregivers build trust with clients,
demonstrate caring and “other-
centeredness,” and actively work to
encourage clients to disclose more about
their experience of pain. In so doing,
caregivers demonstrate their willingness to
validate the client’s experience of pain and
open the door for teaching the client about
reasonable pain evaluations, safe pain
management strategies, and the benefits
and limitations of pharmacological and non-
pharmacological pain management options.
Without these caring relationships,
teaching seems inconsequential to clients
(i.e., just another task the nurse has to
complete) and its benefits often wither after
discharge. Throughout the care experience,
the use of caregiver intuition expands
opportunities for nursing investigation of
aspects of pain management care that may
not initially be apparent. Practice expertise
fosters the development of intuition. As a
part of pain management, nurses’ use of
intuition may help clients identify and
reveal potential blocks to healing, thereby
promoting active, collaborative engagement
in the design and development of solutions
that advance healing. The power of holistic
communication cannot be overemphasized
as a critical activity for promoting healing.
Clients must be open to accepting the
knowledge and expertise of caregivers
regarding the efficacy of various treatments
for pain relief but also have the
responsibility for learning more about pain
management and taking an active role in
decision making that fosters healing. At
the same time, clinicians must remain open
to hearing the client’s “story,” inviting
clients to partner in designing pain relief
interventions, and trusting in the value
of the client’s experiences of pain. Client
openness to describing the meaning of the
pain experience may foster their ability to
address issues that have previously blocked
healing. Such breakthroughs contribute
to deeper integral dialogues between client
and nurse, and aid the clinician in seeking
the expertise of other members of the
healthcare team in the restructuring of
transpersonal care.
To be sure, application of the dimensions
of reality within quadrants does not end with
the individual nurse’s holistic preparedness.
Table 1 also describes the importance of
applying integral knowledge within group
contexts so as to transform pain
management practice through integral
dialogues that promote engagement with
shared interdisciplinary, sociocultural, and
leadership worldviews about the meaning
and value of efforts to collectively address
and enhance pain management care.
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