A Family Systems Nursing Interview Following a Myocardial Infarction: The Power of Commendations

Abstract

The onset of life-threatening or chronic illness irrevocably changes the trajectory of the lives of individuals and their families. The beliefs held about the illness may affect the way individuals and family members cope with the illness as well as the illness itself. The illness beliefs model proposes that a therapeutic conversation that includes the identification of, assessment of, and intervention with constraining beliefs about illness may have a powerful and sustaining influence on individuals' and family members' ability to integrate illness into their lives. The authors present a therapeutic conversation that occurred during two sessions in the Family Nursing Unit at the University of Calgary, with a woman experiencing “feeling overwhelmed and stressed” 6 weeks following the diagnosis of a myocardial infarction. Highlighted is one family nursing intervention, commendations, which shows promise in challenging constraining beliefs that may diminish the perception of strengths and increase suffering.

The effectivness of a strengths‐oriented therapeutic conversation intervention on perceived support, well‐being and burden among family caregivers in palliative home‐care

“…Commendations were first described in the Family Systems Nursing literature as the interventive action of drawing forward and highlighting unrecognized family strengths, competencies, and resources (Wright, Watson, & Bell, 1996). The use of commendations in clinical practice have received further attention in family nursing (Bohn, Wright, & Moules, 2003;Limacher & Wright, 2006…”

“It's the Little Things That Count”: The Value in Receiving Therapeutic Letters

“…The TLs they received contained many positive statements recognizing their strengths and praising their goals or accomplishments. The power or affirmations and commendations in family healing has been acknowledged by others (Bohn, Wright, & Moules, 2003;Leahey & Wright, 2000). Statements such as, "You were able to verbalize an understanding of your illness and why treatment was necessary," and "You seem very intelligent and I hope that you achieve your goal in becoming a lab analyst or groundskeeper" are examples of affirmations and commendations from students' letters.…”

Family Nursing Therapeutic Conversations: Family Reorganization Processes After Diagnosis

“…Furthermore, studies have shown that well‐being is fostered when the conversations also focused on drawing out family strengths and commending family members when they engaged in new roles and were able to help each other or when they talked about their attitudes toward handling the situation (Årestedt et al, ; Benzein et al, ; Persson & Benzein, ). These factors, according to CFAM and CFIM, constitute a powerful intervention (Bohn, ). Commending family and individual strengths was most noticeable when families had a sense of knowing the health care professional s, who asked specific, exploring questions about the family situation and reassured the family about how well they managed the challenges.…”