Effective conflict management begins with knowing your style.

The well being of patients depends on the ability of nurses to manage conflict creatively. The Bartol/McSweeney Conflict Management Scale, an assessment tool that helps nurses identify their predisposition toward conflict, is described. The tool is simple to use and suitable for nurses working in different settings.

Creating a healing environment.

This article provides an exploratory discussion of what constitutes a healing environment in a perioperative setting, including how technology may support or interfere with patient healing. The need for maintaining a patient-centered focus is emphasized. Using reflective imaging to discover ways to appropriately tailor the environment to meet each patient's needs is proposed.

Using literature to create cultural competence.

PURPOSE: To describe how literature can be used to promote cultural competence. Cultural competence is essential for nurses who practice in diverse societies like the United States. ORGANIZING FRAMEWORK: Cultural competence is viewed as a dynamic process of framing assumptions, knowledge, and meanings from a culture other than one's own. Selected excerpts from "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker are used to illustrate the method. Isler's readers' response theory serves as a guide for imaginative engagement and reflective discussion of the concept of health. CONCLUSIONS: Literature helps to dispel the false notion of a monolithic culture. Reflecting on reputable literature helps us hear the stories of those we hope to help and heal.

Psychosomatic: connotations for people who are neither nurses nor physicians.

Words with ambiguous meanings allow or promote uncaring relationships that are destructive to nurses and patients. The term "psychosomatic" is frequently associated with the connotation that the mind affects the body, but disregards the continuous and joint interaction of mind and body. The purpose of this study was to examine the connotative meanings of the term psychosomatic among people who were neither nurses nor physicians. An open-ended questionnaire designed to solicit information about the connotative meanings attached to the word psychosomatic was used to solicit persons. Findings revealed that the majority of subjects held a unidirectional definition of the term; that is, they believed that the mind influences the body but not vice versa. Negative thoughts and feelings were attached to the term. Nurses need to be aware of the meanings that words evoke when communicating with patients.

A study of the meanings assigned to the term psychosomatic among health professionals.

PROBLEM: Noting that many nurses tend to hold a narrow view of the term "psychosomatic," the authors explored the meanings assigned to the term psychosomatic among registered nurses (N = 189) employed in a variety of settings. METHODS: The Psychosomatic Attitude Scale (PAS) was used to categorize the meaning of psychosomatic as either imaginary, functional, structural, or holistic. FINDINGS: Although nurses theoretically espouse a holistic approach to client care, only 46% of the nurses sampled gave a holistic interpretation of the term psychosomatic. A holistic interpretation was more common among nurses who had an internal health locus of control and who were extroverted and intuitive in their personality profile. Further, nurses with a higher level of education and who practiced in maternity or psychiatric settings were more holistic in their understanding of the term psychosomatic. CONCLUSIONS: The authors advocate further study of how beliefs, values, and personality traits interact to influence the nurse's interpretation of the term "psychosomatic."

Nursing assistance for families of patients.

With deinstitutionalization, families have become the primary caregivers of persons with mental illness. Mental health professionals and family members must work together to prevent damage to our most valuable resource, the family. Nurses, who often provide the most continuous care for seriously mentally ill persons, are in a unique position to reach out to families and provide the help that they need as primary caregivers. Let us not fail our patients or their families.

Psychoneuroimmunological aspects of nursing: a course sampler.

Health care consumers are searching for ways to enhance health. Bookstores are filled with self-help literature about mental, physical, and emotional connections and ways to manage these relationships. In an innovative and challenging course, the authors discuss mind-brain-body interactions and illustrate the application of alternative modalities in nursing practice.

Creative literature: an aid to nursing practice.

Literature can add depth to our understanding of the nursing experience. Bartol proves the point by illustrating through literature seven themes that affect us, e.g., imagination, ways of knowing, search for meanings, and other aspects that affect the human experience of health and illness.