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Summary
This article explores the concept of self-awareness and describes how it can be beneficial to nurses on a personal and professional level. Practical tools such as the Johari Window are presented to assist the reader in this process. The authors discuss portfolio development which provides the opportunity to document personal and professional growth.
Keywords
Nursing practice; Professional development; Self-awareness
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Aims and intended learning outcomes
The aim of this article is to increase the reader's understanding of the concept of self-awareness and to explore its use and development in contemporary nursing practice.
After reading this article you should be able to:
* Outline the concept of self-awareness.
* Identify the personal benefits of being a self-aware practitioner.
* Discuss the professional benefits of self-awareness, especially during therapeutic exchanges with patients.
* Use tools to help develop self-awareness.
* Discuss how self-awareness could be developed as parr of ongoing learning, for example, through portfolio development.
Introduction
'Caring, the basis of good nursing, depends on you knowingmore about who you are. Why? Because we cannot help other people until we are a bit dearer about ourselves1 (Burnard 1992). This quotation suggests the importance of self-awareness in caring work and the need for nurses to explore the 'self. Self-awareness is not a new term innursing literature, it has been acknowledged for many years (Burnard 1986, Rawlinson 1990). Becoming self-aware is a conscious process in which we consider our'understanding of ourselves' (Rawlinson 1990). It is only when we know ourselves that we can be aware of what we will and will not accept from others in our lives - it helps us to relate to other people.
Being self-aware enables us to identify our strengths and also those areas that can be developed. If we do not know our good and bad points then we are less likely to be able to help others (Burnard 1992). Nurses can use the self to therapeutic effect when working with patients, for example,...