Overview of the Theory of the Nurse as a Wounded Healer

Overview of the Theory of the Nurse as a Wounded Healer
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Introduction
In this paper we analyze and evaluate a middle range theory known as the Nurse as Wounded Healer – theory that was coined by Marion Conti O'hare. To start with, nursing is known to be a helping profession in which the needs of communities and people in vulnerable states are addressed by people whose main aim is to help in their recovery process Marion Conti-O’Haire coined that people are usually led to certain professions like nursing by their individual desires to relieve the sufferings of other people after witnessing and experiencing traumatic situations in their lives.
Components of the Theory of the Nurse as a Wounded Healer
Nurses care for people who have been burnt, abused, scalded, raped and due to such instances later deal with emotional trauma that affects both their professional and personal lives. After exposures situations of personal trauma, the coping strategies of an individual become ineffective or effective. When the coping strategies of a person are ineffective, the effect of trauma on him or her becomes unrecognized and the pain is not solved. These people then operate as walking wounded people who undergo different social problems in their social lives. To deny their vulnerabilities and conflicts, these people direct their sufferings on colleagues and patients whilst considering them unaffected, and are less empathetic towards other individuals that they interact with. If the Nurse as the Wounded Healer Theory is applicable in cases of PTSD, it is opined that manifestation of PTSD are grounded on the exposures of the individual nurse to traumatic situations and their capability to self-heal, as well as their ability to transcend and transform their experiences. The Theory of The Nurse as a Wounded Healer presents recommendations that wounded nurses can use to overcome their problems that they pick in the course of service delivery. The theory explains the phases that nurses go through to develop ‘wounds’ as a result of caring for traumatic conditions in health care facilities.
Philosophical basis or worldview change, advancing health
According to a current research study, caring for people with traumatic conditions is stressful (Gray, Groove & Sutherland, 2018). Recurrent exposures to traumatic experiences and suffering have made traumatic experiences more popular among practicing nurses. Most affected are nurses working in ICU wards and those that deal with chronic exposures since exposures to such cases may cause psychological and physical distress to the healthcare providers. With cases of chronic diseases like Covid-19 whose outbreak has caused a pandemic , the healthcare profession has woken up to the fact that secondary trauma should not be ignored as an effect of the nursing profession, and should now be placed at the very beginning of nursing practice. This is because traumatic events that may be caused by a pandemic, cancer and other chronic cases have deep and long lasting effects on personal and professional lives of nurses.
Nurses who care for people who suffer chronic conditions or chronic ...