Knowing you, knowing me
The study suggests that the users of mental health services wanted nurses to anticipate and recognize their needs at any given time. Nurses were expected to know what the client wants even if the client was unable to express this verbally. The clues enabling the nurse to do this are not always clear and clients’ needs are forever changing. According to Peplau (1987), people transmit messages to each other through verbal and non-verbal cues, patterns and variations of behaviour. Bryman (1988) states that the interpretation of interactions is a mutual and continuous process. This checking of oneself and the other to ensure that the right projections are made is referred to by Cooley (1902) as the ‘looking glass self’. Goffman (1959) wrote that information about the individual tells others how best to act in order to produce the desired response from them. For example, in this study, the consensus amongst clients was that nurses should relate to them as a friend, sharing personal experiences in a two-way relationship based on reciprocity and respect. However, clients also expect the nurse to provide them with expert knowledge about their condition. This involves the nurse moving across the domains that range from being ‘ordinary’ with the client to being more distant and professional.
Many of the activities undertaken by nurses are dependent on there being time in which to execute them. Time only becomes important when there are activities that need to be performed within it. These activities make time explicit. The description of time will depend on which of the three ‘me’s the nurse is operating as. For example, within professional-me, time is seen as something to be structured by appointments with clients to deal with specific problems via professional intervention. Within ordinary-me, time will need to be more available in order to meet clients’ need for friendship.