The interpersonal relationship between the nurse and the person being cared for is essential for optimal nursing practice
María Isabel Saracíbar, dean of the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Navarra, focused on the emotional education for healthcare professionals at the I Meeting of "Academia y Sociedad" of the Institute for Culture and Society
FOTO: Manuel Castells
María Isabel Saracíbar, dean of the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Navarra, has participated in the I Meeting ‘Academia y Sociedad' of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) with the title: "Construyendo contextos emocionales saludables" (Building healthy emotional contexts) , which has been held at the academic center.
In this second session on "Emotional conflicts in medical assistance", professor Saracíbar focused her presentation on the emotional education for healthcare professionals. She highlighted that the relationship between the nurse and the person being cared for is currently considered to be the focus of optimal nursing practice. She pointed out that it should be an interpersonal relationship, in which the nurse has to enter into the intimacy of the other.
This practice involves an "emotional risk" for the nurse, for which professor Saracíbar proposes that "our students learn the management of emotions while still in the university". Therefore, the expert has indicated that "to fulfill this optimal relationship without risking personal suffering, nursing professionals should possess skills such as "acquiring interdisciplinary scientific and humanistic knowledge, self-knowledge, leadership capacity, teaching sensitivity for the perception towards the human being and having a reflective nature."
Pilar León, professor at the University of Navarra Faculty of Medicine and moderator of the round table; Carmen Hijós, general secretary of the Medical Association in Navarra; and Jose Antonio Gutiérrez, belonging to the Medical Education Chair of Lilly Foundation, participated in the event.