The Ladder of Participation: Autonomy in Healthcare

I recently had an article published in Nursing Standard entitled ‘The Highest Possible Rung,’ which discusses the patients struggle for autonomy within health care.  This blog highlights some of the main issues discussed within the article. The Ladder of Participation, developed by Arnstein (1969), has traditionally been used to help health professionals identify and understanding [...]

Read Full Post »

Leadership during Change

All of us have either been a leader or followed a leader. We will have experienced good leaders and bad leaders. Whether a leader is effective or not usually becomes most clear during times when they are leading change. Indeed, leading change is reflected in one of the most frequently cited definitions of leadership: “Leadership [...]

Read Full Post »

Empathy versus Sympathy

Psychologists, counsellors, nurses, or anyone in a caring profession require EMPATHY. What exactly is empathy?  Carl Rogers (1957), the founder of person-centred therapy, defined it as: to perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person, but without [...]

Read Full Post »

Mental Health Inequalities: Older People

I recently published the following article: Davies, NJ (2011) Inequalities in healthcare provision for older adults.  Nursing Standard, 25(41), pp.49-55. With the percentage of the population aged 65-years and over increasing from 15% in 1984 to 16% in 2009 (ONS, 2010) and a projection of this reaching 23% by 2034, there is a clear need [...]

Read Full Post »

Objectivity: Focus on the Facts

An article I wrote for Nursing Standard came out today – ‘Focus on the Facts.’  The article is about objectivity and how decision-making in the workplace can be affected by personal opinion.  It is primarily about evidence-based practice and how healthcare professionals can be swamped by so much information that objectivity becomes a complex maze. [...]

Read Full Post »