Introduction
This essay will employ the Carl Rogers’ Person-Centred Approach and its core conditions. Specifically, I will demonstrate an understanding of the subject through my clinical placement experience in a mental care facility, where I applied one of the conditions of the approach - empathy. Quality nursing entails more than the usual care practices. It involves focusing care and attention to a patient’s problem in a bid to improve his or her condition. This is the principle that underlies the person-centred therapeutic approach. Essentially, this approach views patients as its sole sufficient authority concerning their experience and situation with the capability of handling their individual growth potential (McLeod, 2015, p.107-115). The clinical placement, in this case, was facilitated by my mentor who guided me through most of the critical aspects of the nursing practice, especially when dealing with mentally ill patients. The mental facility admitted patients with all forms of mental illnesses and offered them both actual treatments and counselling to stabilise their conditions. In line with the nursing care privacy policies and the associated ethical standards, I will use pseudonyms to conceal the identities of the patients and the health care facility where necessary.
The Carl Rogers’ Person-Centred Approach and its Core Conditions
The Person-Centred Approach (PCA), as mentioned, is a psychotherapeutic approach that perceives patients as having all the personal resources they require for their growth, thus, its primary goal is assisting them to identify these resources and facilitate their growth (Arnold, 2014 p.354-369; Rogers, Lyon and Tausch, 2013). Cooper, Watson and Hoeldampf (2010) posit that the PCA aims at providing patients with a rare opportunity of realising the impact of their behaviours and attitudes during therapy. However, it is noteworthy that the approach has attracted a range of criticism from various corners despite its popularity and proven effectiveness in the treatment of psychological conditions. The approach recognises the pertinence of certain conditions that must be favourable for the growth of patients without which it may be hindered (Cepeda and Davenport, 2011, p.1-12). In application, when patients fail to receive the necessary positive regard and acceptance from their caregivers, or when the positive regard is pegged on certain behaviours of the patients, they may gradually lose the personal meaning of their experience (Arnold and Underman-Boggs, 2011). The result is a slow or stifled growth that lacks consistency because of a compromised innate growth tendency. One justification for such a scenario is that people tend to put up with the conditional acceptance they get through a gradual incorporation of the conditions into their lives, including personal views and behaviours. Individual perceptions, especially those of patients, are formed based on their opinions of what their caregivers make of them and their conditions. As such, a positive regard to patients by their caregivers is a central aspect of treatment and has a direct impact on the outcome of the process.