University Nursing Assignment: Healthcare Conflict Essay

This essay provides a reflective account of a nursing professional's experience dealing with the conflict between their public and private self, specifically in relation to caring for patients who self-harm. The author, a nursing student, discusses the core nursing values of social justice, autonomy, altruism, integrity, and human dignity, and how these values are challenged when caring for patients who engage in self-harm. The essay highlights the difficulties in establishing trust, the conflict with traditional treatment methods, and the challenges in upholding patient dignity and autonomy when dealing with violent or uncooperative patients. The author reflects on their personal values, their perceptions of the patients' behaviors, and the impact of these factors on their ability to provide person-centered care. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need to balance personal beliefs with professional ethics while caring for patients with personality disorders who engage in self-harm.

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

1HEALTHCARE
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

2HEALTHCARE
patients who inflict self-harm, they often display an urge to gain subjective control over their
chaotic internal thoughts and feelings, and also manifest dissociation behaviour (Smith et al.
2015). Under such circumstances, I find it extremely difficult to establish trust with such
patients, since they do not openly express their thoughts and feelings, which in turn acts an
impediment while establishing good rapport. Furthermore, I have the perception that
traditional and conventional methods of treating such patients do more harm, than curing
them of the condition. I am against the use of restraint as punishment since they compromise
patient safety. However, on numerous occasions, the patients become violent and also attack
the healthcare professionals, which makes it necessary to impose physical restraint, in order
to subdue the patient’s movement (Burry, Rose and Ricou 2018). This conflict makes it
difficult to follow the core values of dignity and autonomy towards the patient.
Conclusion- To conclude, I often come across patients who display signs and
symptoms of personality disorder that make them inflict self-harm upon themselves. While
caring for such patients, my personal values and beliefs related to person-centred care and
demonstration of empathy and dignity often get overlooked since the patients manifest
behaviour where they fail to establish trust and faith (Kalra, Baruah and Unnikrishnan 2017).

3HEALTHCARE
References
Burry, L., Rose, L. and Ricou, B., 2018. Physical restraint: time to let go. Intensive care
medicine, 44(8), pp.1296-1298.
Dobrowolska, B. and Palese, A., 2016. The caring concept, its behaviours and obstacles:
perceptions from a qualitative study of undergraduate nursing students. Nursing
inquiry, 23(4), pp.305-314.
Kalra, S., Baruah, M.P. and Unnikrishnan, A.G., 2017. Responsible patient-centered
care. Indian journal of endocrinology and metabolism, 21(3), p.365.
Lagerros, Y.T., Brandt, L., Hedberg, J., Sundbom, M. and Bodén, R., 2017. Suicide, Self-
harm, and depression after gastric bypass surgery. Annals of surgery, 265(2), pp.235-243.
Rees, N., Rapport, F., Snooks, H., John, A. and Patel, C., 2017. How do emergency
ambulance paramedics view the care they provide to people who self harm?: Ways and
means. International journal of law and psychiatry, 50, pp.61-67.
Smith, M.J., Bouch, J., Bradstreet, S., Lakey, T., Nightingale, A. and O'Connor, R.C., 2015.
Health services, suicide, and self-harm: patient distress and system anxiety. The Lancet
Psychiatry, 2(3), pp.275-280.