The article provides a review of three journal articles related to some major elements in the counseling profession or practice. The first section examines an article on clinical supervision in light of its definition and its significance in the counseling process. The second section examines two articles on self-esteem and client self-care when dealing with stress and anxiety with regards to how they relate to a client’s issues and use of the information in working with a client.
¶ … Clinical Supervision:
Tony Bush wrote an article regarding overcoming the hindrances to effective clinical supervision, which was published in Nursing Times website. Bush's publication was influenced by the fact that clinical supervision is one of the most commonly misunderstood practices in contemporary nursing. However, clinical supervision provides a supportive and nurturing service to nurse practitioners by assisting them to critically reflect on the actions during the delivery of patient care. As a result, the author seeks to examine and explore the existing role and status of clinical supervision in the Nursing Health Service.
Clinical supervision is basically described as a complex activity with multi-faceted functions that seeks to provide emotional support to counselors receiving supervision and providing them with extra education. This concept can also be described as a means of evaluating and monitoring counselors' professional performance and enhancing the quality of their respective duties. In the nursing field, clinical supervision primarily focuses on enhancing nursing practice, enhancing the responsibility of nurse practitioners, and improving patient care Bush, 2005, p.36). This concept should seek to address several challenges that emerge from the feelings of loneliness that nurses experience in the modern nursing environment as they work towards abiding by standards and charters. This results in feelings of hopelessness, which is likely to have considerable effects on the nurse-patient relationship.
Notably, the use of clinical supervision in the nursing profession is hindered by several barriers attributed to individual and organizational factors. Some of these barriers include difficulties to differentiate the process from individual performance review, suspicion by nurses, confidentiality challenges, and seeming lack of organizational support. Therefore, the application of this concept in nursing requires dealing with personal and organizational barriers and a clear understanding of the goals of clinical supervision. In addition, managers and staff need to demonstrate ownership of the process in order to develop and nurture positive responses to the processes and increased participation from all individuals. Notably, the conceptual and practical elements of clinical supervision should be combined during the implementation or application processes.
Clinical supervision is significant to counseling because of the crucial role it plays in the process with regards to providing emotional support and extra education to counselors receiving supervision. The significance of this concept to counseling is also attributed to its use in enhancing the professional performance and quality of work of counselors through effective monitoring and evaluation. This is basically because the clinical supervision process involves the counselor's personal reflection regarding his/her thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which result in improved self-understanding and self-knowledge.
Self-esteem and Client Self-Care:
Mary H. Guindon published an article to help promote accountability in the use of the self-esteem concept or construct. She stated that self-esteem is a major target of intervention as evident in the abundance of research on the concept as a significant aspect of personality variable (Guindon, 2002, p.80). Regardless of the popularity of this construct, it evident that counselors rarely evaluate levels of self-esteem, which is an indication of lack of accountability in the quality of services provided by counselors. Similar to other supportive professionals, counselors need to avoid making statements about self-esteem or plan interventions without some framework to assess self-esteem as precisely as possible. Some of the major principles towards self-esteem assessment include being acquainted with its definitions and terms, using several methods of assessment, and being aware of different behavioral styles across contexts and cultures. The other principles are awareness of personal self-esteem issues and attempting to use appropriate intervention initiatives.
In examining self-help strategies used by people to lessen emotional distress, Elizabeth Marley starts his analysis by arguing that some people with psychological distress, particularly stress and anxiety do not look for professional assistance but opt to use their individual strategies to lessen their symptoms (Marley, 2011, p.317). Even though there is little known about these self-help strategies, it's important to identify the most appropriate approaches the may be used to alleviate stress and anxiety and the reasons for these choices. Generally, managing psychological distress like stress and anxiety is a complex and multi-faceted process that is unique from one individual to another. Therefore, the use of self-help strategies during self-care is dependent on the link between the individual's beliefs, social networks, and ideas on coping.
You’re 76% through this paper. Sign up to read the full paper.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.