Nurse coaches using the Resilience Principles Paradigm are looking in the direction of Innate Health and mental well-being. Taught through a framework of 7 Implication, 3 Principles, and 1 Paradigm gives us the simplicity to point to the foundation of human experience. We can count on this framework like gravity; it doesn’t change even when things are chaotic and complex.
As coaches and health care providers, we create a healing space that allows for deep connection and insightful conversations where they can see themselves as healthy and whole no matter their circumstances.
By pointing them in the direction of their true essence, innate resilience, and capacity to heal their minds and bodies, they will naturally find themselves in a peaceful state of mind that allows healing to occur.
Where do Nurse Coaches practice?
Nurse coaches practice in all areas of nursing. Nurse coaching is a way of being with patients, co-workers, families, and us. The setting is of no matter. Coaching is a natural extension of nursing practice.
The professional nurse coach sees each patient/client as innately healthy and the expert of their care, which direction to go in, and which questions to ask.
Individuals may seek guidance and options; ultimately, through their insights, they will move in the direction best for themselves at any given moment. The nurse coach sees the resilient nature of each individual and makes space to support whatever they decide.
The relationship the patient has with their dis-ease, whether mental, spiritual, or physical, will be revealed to them in its own time when it is ready to be healed. There is no effort to change what is already here.
The nurse coach is the most essential part of the coaching relationship. The nurse coach creates an environment for clients to have previously unseen insights by being present and holding space for another person.
Sustained health is attainable through the individuals’ insights; the nurse coach consistently sees and points towards this Resilience, what is always there and can never be taken away, and what is untouched, regardless of the dis-ease. We acknowledge the client as experts in their care.
Patient-directed care; more options and insights appear when one is re-oriented to their Resilience and innate health, they truly are the experts in their care.
Nurse coaching recognizes innate health in all and expands beyond nursing. All licensed health professionals play a role in creating the changes we need in our healthcare system.
Nurse Coaching with the Resilience Principles Paradigm
Realize potential vs. focus on disease, injury, or problems
Current ideas about Resilience; what it is NOT:
- Overcoming circumstances.
- Maximizing strength factors.
- Minimizing risk factors.
- Personality.
- The past.
- The severity of traumatic circumstances.
- The frequency of traumatic circumstances.
- Individual differences.
- Positive thinking.
©2015 Blevens and Monroe
Resilience IS about the Nature of How Thought Works
The Resilience Principles Paradigm uncovers the moment in time when change happens. In the present moment, when a client has an insight into how thought works, that brings new questions and new solutions to our problems.
When a Nurse Coach sees a patient/client as innately well, the relationship organically shifts to one of mutual respect and support. The patient senses the nurse’s grounding, confidence and inspiration are enhanced, and healing begins.
The Nurse Coach sees the patient as innately well as a shift in orientation towards the patient, rather than simply or solely treating the disease with which the patient presents. The focus is on the whole person rather than the problem. In the person lies Resilience, not in the illness or the circumstance. When clients see this for themselves, they are now in a ‘place’ where healing can begin.
Definition of Professional Nurse Coach and Professional Nurse Coaching
The Nurse coach … assists individuals or groups in realizing their potential. The change process is grounded in an awareness that effective change evolves from within before it can be manifested and maintained externally. The Nurse Coach works with the whole person, using principles and modalities that integrate body-mind-emotion-spirit and environment.
The Art and Science of Nurse Coaching, 2013.
Coaching with the Resilience Principles Paradigm points to innate health.
No fixing is necessary; when one realizes nothing is broken, nothing to be fixed, space is freed up to move forward. Through insight into the Resilience Principles Paradigm, the client will naturally drop thinking that is no longer necessary.
Ultimately the individual’s insight is what moves them in one direction or another.
The Resilience Principles Paradigm grounds the nurse coach- they know how reality is created, which acts as a catalyst for their clients to have insight and epiphanies. Through their own insights, immediate and profound changes can and will occur effortlessly.
When the nurse coach is grounded in innate health and resilience, oriented to how one’s mental life manifests, they will be much more effective. The client is genuinely seen and understood at a much deeper level. The client and coach together reflect the potential to heal.
The paradigm of innate mental health does not depend on context or concepts. Potential lies beyond our ideas and beliefs of what seems to be. It points to a single paradigm and creates a unitary science that includes all aspects of life.
When we have a single paradigm, we can relax and stop searching for answers that are not there. It gives meaning to our experience of life, fills in gaps in other theories, and gives us a foundation on which we can always count.
Teresa Walding, BSN, RN, NC-BC, and Anney Pumo, RN, BS, HWNC-BC, February 2019, updated by Teresa Walding October 2022.
References
Hess, Darlene, et al. The Art & Science of Nurse Coaching: The Provider’s Guide to Coaching Scope and Competencies. American Nurses Association, 2013.