Description
This study has shown that caregivers feel they personally get a lot out of their contact with patients, but the medical standards for professional conduct do not support this experience. The medical training literature does indeed discuss some elements of receptivity, such as the importance of listening skills, empathy, and openness to the patient. These skills, however, are primarily deployed as tools designed to control the use of generalizable knowledge (Tronto, 1993). This detrimentally separates professionalism from the person by negating personal interest. Yet receptivity has precisely to do with personal experience (Gadamer, 1991; Gehlen, 1983). When caregivers experience contact with patients, they are sharing spheres with patients (Sloterdijk, 2003). As demonstrated, physicality (Merleau-Ponty, 2009), emotions and the assignment of individual value (Nussbaum, 2001) belong to experience. Up until now, this area of tacit knowledge (Polanyi, 1967) has been insufficiently integrated into the fields of nursing and medicine. Here, the focus is still mainly on drawing boundaries between caregiver and patient, and between the personal and the professional. That is understandable because receptivity and the application of experiential knowledge are associated with such risks as confusing the caregiver and patient, vulnerability, bias and the arbitrariness of the caregiver. Therefore, it is necessary to educate caregivers in the conscious awareness of oneself [as separate from] and the patient.If receptivity gained more recognition, in addition to generalizable knowledge, we could make more use of individual empirical knowledge, which can only be obtained through receptivity. Caregivers could then consciously apply their experience, to the extent that it would be appropriate for them personally. The interviews revealed that this would have a positive impact on their flexibility, strength, and job satisfaction. The motivation that feeds them as a person lies for a large part in patient contact. Being receptive means caregivers are moved by their contacts and are thus stimulated to ‘give’ care. The engagement occurring in this manner makes them open to feelings of sympathy (empathy) and compassion.
In this area of personal experience, caregivers receive what is of value to themselves: knowledge, recognition, and meaning to their actions. This gets them started (motivates) and keeps them going (Sloterdijk’s exercises). Personal, valuable development is a key driver for caregivers. It benefits both their professional and their personal lives.
Sloterdijk’s model proved useful to focus on the receptivity of caregivers, as an essential element of their contact with patients in the form of ‘shared spaces’. Receptivity activates their drive to provide care. The personal ‘practice targets’ associated with this drive fulfill the objectives (norms and values) set from the professional viewpoint. This study, however, puts more emphasis than Sloterdijk does (in his theory of spheres and exercise) on the reflexive, cognitive elements that play a role alongside emotional exchanges. The study builds on Sloterdijk’s vision with its focus on perception and conscious choice, and for the drive to exercise, it also refers to the call coming from the patient. Regarding practice and thereby receptivity as a relational process makes it become a mutual phenomenon.
Finally, the chapter presents various facets that define the scope of this study and proposes several recommendations for education and retraining.
Finally I identify various aspects that limit the scope of this study, including the fact that I do not discuss personal biographies and philosophies and did not study the patients’ beliefs. My recommendations for training and continuing education concern exchanges with role models who could share their experiences of personal receptivity in their professional capacity and promote awareness of their own value and the – positive – role this can play in the provision of care. Being receptive to their own value motivates caregivers to commit themselves to providing good care for a good life.
| Period | Feb 2015 |
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| Examinee | Beate Giebner |
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