Caring for Patients who Self-Harm: A Reflective Account

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Nursing assignment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

HEALTHCARE1
Introduction- The concept of caring is best demonstrated by the ability of a nursing
professional to embody the chief values that are related to professional nursing (Dobrowolska
and Palese 2016). As a nursing professional, I hold the opinion that core nursing values
encompass social justice, autonomy, altruism, integrity, and human dignity. This essay will
be a reflective account of conflict between my public and private self, in relation to caring for
people who self-harm.
Discussion- Time and again it has been postulated that self-harm encompasses direct
injury to the body, with an intention to commit suicide, and is commonly reported by patients
who have been diagnosed with substance abuse, schizophrenia, or eating disorders (Lagerros
et al. 2017). Most often, I encounter patients who cut their skin, embed several items inside
their skin such as, needles, or pull out their hair that leads to severe health consequences. I
hold the belief that self-harm cannot be categorised as a mental illness, rather provides an
indication for lack of necessary coping skills among patients. I also hold the notion that most
patients resort to self-harm in order to seek punishment for some action. However, time and
again conflict arises when the patients consider any kind of empathetic or considerate
approach as vicious. Often it has been found that nurses try to demonstrate dignity and
respect towards such patients, which in turn increases their self-esteem and helps in lowering
long-term distress (Rees et al. 2017). Nonetheless, while caring for self-harm patients, I have
encountered several situations where development of restorative coping actions becomes
difficult since the patients want to alienate themselves from the surroundings, and any kind of
attention or compassion makes them feel tension and reinforces a temporary phase of
euphoria, thus making them manifest more violent behaviour.
My personal values generally guide the perception that adopting a person-centred
approach while caring for any patient, forms an important aspect of nursing, and that the
patient must always be placed at the core of care delivery process. However, while caring for