Professionalism & Management | Communication | Developing self-awareness

Demonstrating Personal Qualities: Developing Self-awareness
Session Overview
Description
This session will discuss the importance of developing self-awareness in healthcare and ways to enhance your own self-awareness in your practice to further your development.

Learning Objectives
This session will support you to:

• Recognise and articulate your own values and principles, understanding how these may differ from those of other individuals and groups
• Identify your own strengths and limitations, the impact of your behaviour on others, and the effect of stress on your behaviour
• Identify your own emotions and prejudices and understand how these may affect your judgement and behaviour
• Obtain, analyse and act on feedback from a variety of sources

Prerequisites
Before commencing this session you should:

• Have an awareness/understanding of different cultures, religions and behaviours
• Develop an action plan with your supervisor (or equivalent) on your development needs

Self-awareness in healthcare related roles is recognised as an essential element in providing safe effective care.

The concepts of ‘self’ and ‘person’ are central to the educational and therapeutic endeavours [1].

Healthcare professions need to explore ‘the self’ in order to understand how their own behaviours and beliefs impact on their patients, relatives and colleagues (for example when dealing with your own feelings of discomfort when caring for a dying patient) [2].

With therapeutic relationships between care providers, patients and relatives being the key to safe effective care, establishing and maintaining effective relationships can be improved by professionals being ‘self-aware’ [3].

This session will explore how you can develop your own self-awareness by reflecting and exploring your own practice, beliefs and behaviours.