F Canada. The authors wish to acknowledge Dr. Jack Haas and Sylvia Teare for their assistance.
What is the appeal of complexity thinking for nurses in practice and for nursing as a discipline? Possibly, it is the idea of possibility itself and the appeal of the reality of ambiguity and nonlinear change that typify nursing work. Nurses come from a place of complexity, a place of understanding lived experiences (suffering, hope, fear, and violence), a place of practices that lurk in the borderlands of other more defined disciplinary fields. Many nurses who work with persons in community have a deep and embodied understanding of the complexities, ambiguities, and possibilities of working toward some betterment with persons in the context of their complex lives. The purposes of this paper are to describe a relatively new nursing role, the registered nurse health coach (RNHC), and to explore the relationships among complexity thinking and the emergent practices of the RNHC in community settings.2. The Registered Nurse Health CoachThe health coach is a new role in Canada, and the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (��-Amatoxin site MoHLTC) in Ontario may be the first ministry to designate specific resources to support nurses in the coaching role. The coaching role has been developed over the past decade in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and research about the effectiveness of the coaching role for helping persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus and other chronic illnesses is promising [1]. Prior to examining qualities and responsibilities of the health coach as conceptualized in our project, a brief view of health coaching is reviewed in a broader context. Health professionals are increasingly acknowledging that persons living with chronic illness must be supported with a comprehensive and compassionate form of health care that goes far beyond simply providing education/information. The central qualities and role responsibilities of the health2 coach role found in a literature review are consistent with the role as it is developing in Canada. Several authors implementing the health coach in primary care, PG-1016548 chemical information clinics, and community health settings specify that the health coach provides personcentred care within relationships that are based in respect and nonjudgmental attitudes and practices [2?]. Coaches need to have excellent listening skills and to be able to offer support and care based on value-based principles, including a clear commitment to follow the lead of the person and his/her priorities and goals for change [3, 6?]. Anderson and Funnell [3] suggest that the fundamental shift in an empowerment approach is where health workers “change from feeling responsible for patients to feeling responsible to patients” (page 155). Hayes and Kalmakis propose that coaching “focuses on the clients’ feelings, desires, experiences, personal goals, discoveries, and learning” [9, page 557] and that a coaching role attends to who the person is and what they discover and see as possible. The literature informs a foundation of deep respect and nonjudgmental practices with persons living unique situations, but this foundation is not yet buttressed with ontological or theoretical beliefs that further enable nurses to be creative agents in the nurse-person process, agents that can transcend the legacy of modernism and the rules of causality, prediction, and control. Complexity thinking and its affiliated basic tenets can provide the creativity and openne.F Canada. The authors wish to acknowledge Dr. Jack Haas and Sylvia Teare for their assistance.
What is the appeal of complexity thinking for nurses in practice and for nursing as a discipline? Possibly, it is the idea of possibility itself and the appeal of the reality of ambiguity and nonlinear change that typify nursing work. Nurses come from a place of complexity, a place of understanding lived experiences (suffering, hope, fear, and violence), a place of practices that lurk in the borderlands of other more defined disciplinary fields. Many nurses who work with persons in community have a deep and embodied understanding of the complexities, ambiguities, and possibilities of working toward some betterment with persons in the context of their complex lives. The purposes of this paper are to describe a relatively new nursing role, the registered nurse health coach (RNHC), and to explore the relationships among complexity thinking and the emergent practices of the RNHC in community settings.2. The Registered Nurse Health CoachThe health coach is a new role in Canada, and the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MoHLTC) in Ontario may be the first ministry to designate specific resources to support nurses in the coaching role. The coaching role has been developed over the past decade in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and research about the effectiveness of the coaching role for helping persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus and other chronic illnesses is promising [1]. Prior to examining qualities and responsibilities of the health coach as conceptualized in our project, a brief view of health coaching is reviewed in a broader context. Health professionals are increasingly acknowledging that persons living with chronic illness must be supported with a comprehensive and compassionate form of health care that goes far beyond simply providing education/information. The central qualities and role responsibilities of the health2 coach role found in a literature review are consistent with the role as it is developing in Canada. Several authors implementing the health coach in primary care, clinics, and community health settings specify that the health coach provides personcentred care within relationships that are based in respect and nonjudgmental attitudes and practices [2?]. Coaches need to have excellent listening skills and to be able to offer support and care based on value-based principles, including a clear commitment to follow the lead of the person and his/her priorities and goals for change [3, 6?]. Anderson and Funnell [3] suggest that the fundamental shift in an empowerment approach is where health workers “change from feeling responsible for patients to feeling responsible to patients” (page 155). Hayes and Kalmakis propose that coaching “focuses on the clients’ feelings, desires, experiences, personal goals, discoveries, and learning” [9, page 557] and that a coaching role attends to who the person is and what they discover and see as possible. The literature informs a foundation of deep respect and nonjudgmental practices with persons living unique situations, but this foundation is not yet buttressed with ontological or theoretical beliefs that further enable nurses to be creative agents in the nurse-person process, agents that can transcend the legacy of modernism and the rules of causality, prediction, and control. Complexity thinking and its affiliated basic tenets can provide the creativity and openne.