title: Empowering counseling--a case study: nurse-patient encounter in a hospital.
abstract: This study illustrates practices that a nurse uses in order to empower patients. The emphasis is on speech formulae that encourage patients to discuss their concerns and to solicit information about impending surgery. The study is a part of a larger research project and a single case was selected for presentation in this article because it differed from the rest of the data by manifesting empowering practice. A videotaped nurse-patient health counseling session was conducted in a hospital and transcribed verbatim. The investigator interviewed the nurse and the patient after the conversation, and these interviews were transcribed as well. The encounter that is presented here as a case study is a concrete example of a counseling session during which the patient is free to discuss with the nurse. The empowering practices that the nurse employed were as follows: encouraging the patient to speak out, tactfully sounding out the patient's concerns and knowledge of impending surgery, listening to feedback, and building a positive vision of the future for the patient. We suggest that nurses should pay attention to verbal expression and forms of language. This enables them to gain self-awareness and discover new tools to work with.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Department of Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Box 35, 40351 Jyväskylä, Finland.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kettunen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poskiparta
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liimatainen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D011209:Power, Psychological; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000523:psychology*; D014743:Videotape Recording