Emotional Boundary Work in Advanced Fertility Nursing Roles

In this article we examine the nature of intimacy and knowing in the nurse-patient relationship in the context of advanced nursing roles in fertility care. We suggest that psychoanalytical approaches to emotions may contribute to an increased understanding of how emotions are managed in advanced nur...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Allan, Helen (Author) ; Barber, Debbie (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2005
In: Nursing ethics
Year: 2005, Volume: 12, Issue: 4, Pages: 391-400
Further subjects:B Intimacy
B Psychoanalysis
B fertility nursing
B therapeutic use of self
B Emotions
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:In this article we examine the nature of intimacy and knowing in the nurse-patient relationship in the context of advanced nursing roles in fertility care. We suggest that psychoanalytical approaches to emotions may contribute to an increased understanding of how emotions are managed in advanced nursing roles. These roles include nurses undertaking tasks that were formerly performed by doctors. Rather than limiting the potential for intimacy between nurses and fertility patients, we argue that such roles allow nurses to provide increased continuity of care. This facilitates the management of emotions where a feeling of closeness is created while at the same time maintaining a distance or safe boundary with which both nurses and patients are comfortable. We argue that this distanced or ‘bounded’ relationship can be understood as a defence against the anxiety of emotions raised in the nurse-fertility patient relationship.
ISSN:1477-0989
Contains:Enthalten in: Nursing ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1191/0969733005ne803oa