Self-awareness in counselling

Accident and Emergency (A & E) is a high-powered and diverse specialism (Casteldine 1993). Patients attend A & E for varied and complex reasons (Crouch & Dale 1994). The focus of this paper is to analyse the concept of self-awareness, how nurses learn to become self-aware and how self-awareness facilitates effective treatment interventions with specific reference to the role of the A & E nurse. The concept of the nurse's self and self-awareness is considered. A few aspects of verbal and non-verbal communication are used as examples to explore how effective helping can be achieved in the assessment of clients' needs in A & E through understanding the impact of the nurse's self in counselling in the A & E environment.