Painting the landscape of emotionality : colouring in the emotional gaps between the theory and practice of mental health nursing

Warne, T; Mcandrew, S

Abstract

As mental health nurses acquire and utilize knowledge for practice, both emotion
and learning become interrelated, interactive, and interdependent aspects of personal functioning and
professional practice. Emotion and learning in combination are powerful sources of meaning and
direction. This paper explores how, in addressing these important aspects of ‘becoming’ and ‘being’ a
mental health nurse with students, the medium of painting was used to facilitate the exploration of
their self in relation to others encountered in recent clinical practice. Broad principles of psychoanalytic
theory are used in analysing the experiences depicted in the student paintings, and their explanatory
accounts, in order to explore the emotionality of mental health nursing and the complexities of
addressing this within current educational processes. What is revealed is that in the uncertainties of
everyday clinical and educational practice, working and learning in the place between knowing and
not knowing can give rise to unconscious defence mechanisms being used to achieve emotional
homeostasis. This paper argues that while working and learning in this hinterland can sometimes be
experienced as being threatening and anxiety provoking, it is also a place for personal and professional
development and growth. The tutor’s role in facilitating such opportunities for growth is seen as being
crucial. However, this will require tutors to actively engage in critical reflection in and on their
educational practice in order to better understand and use their authentic self in more effectively
supporting the student.

Citation

Warne, T., & Mcandrew, S. (2008). Painting the landscape of emotionality : colouring in the emotional gaps between the theory and practice of mental health nursing. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 17(2), 108-115. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1447-0349.2008.00518.x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: May 13, 2011
• Journal: International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
• Print ISSN: 1445-8330
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 108-115
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1447-0349.2008.00518.x
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1447-0349.2008.00518.x