‘Appreciative Healthcare Practice – a guide to compassionate person-centred care’

Dr Gwilym Wyn Roberts (Author), Dr Andrew Machon (co-Author)

 ‘Appreciative Healthcare Practice – a guide to compassionate person-centred care’

Written by Dr Gwilym Wyn Roberts a Senior Lecturer at the School of Healthcare Sciences Cardiff University, a leading healthcare academic and Dr Andrew Machon an Accredited Executive Business Coach with some of the World’s leading corporate companies. 

Inspired by discussions around Robert Francis’s report into the failings at the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust published in February 2013 and relating to issues of patient safety, quality of care and a culture of collective leadership this book considers a new approach to the question of how to care for clients appreciatively, responsively, compassionately and in a truly person centred way.

Not only is this book targeted at ALL who are involved in  health care such as  support workers and the voluntary sector, but also  students across all the healthcare professions  and in particular experienced practitioners at all levels  including social workers, allied health professionals, nurses, and doctors..  

What the authors position in this book is that each and every health and social care professional and support worker is capable of a spectrum of care – from miss care through to compassionate care. Putting blame somewhere outside of us negates awareness of our limitations and our great strengths as practitioners. Our ability to be self-aware, to self-manage and to self-care is a true and direct measure of the degree that we are able to care for others. What is missing and yet vital to the discussion is insight. The author’s contribution is to offer a model that allows all health and social care practitioners to see the full scope of their potential practice. The ‘three eyes’ of the healthcare practitioner invite every carer to look in at their caring practice through three different lenses namely: the analytical, appreciative and creative eye. Each lens offers a markedly different perspective on caring and as each eye is opened brings new skills and qualities to the practitioner and their care practice.

Contents::

Introduction

Carer’s stories

Compassionate and dignified care

Professionalism - on becoming a professional

Applying appreciative inquiry in practice and education

Creativity and care

Applying the three-eye model to healthcare

Mindful healthcare practice

The appreciative care worker and coach

Review

"I believe this book may become one of the most important of our time for those of us in work that involves the care of others. The volume and type of demands and changes we face in caring work means we may lose our capacity to 'be' and care in the pressure to 'do', work and deliver. Open-hearted individuals wishing to care may face stress and an experience of burnout in the face of these demands. This book has a special gift in dealing with a complex subject that is hard to express in a way that is accessible to those that need to understand more fully. The book gives us the language and perspective that makes this subject communicable and one that can be taught, explored and learnt. The book also shows us a paradox: in care, appreciation and creativity we can find the best in us, give the best in us, care while delivering tasks that are asked of us, and at the same time care for ourselves. This book will help us find more of our own humanity as well as caring via that humanity."

Piers Worth PhD

Chartered Psychologist  Accredited Psychotherapist.

Reader in Psychology – Buckinghamshire New University 

Kindle edition and Paperback available to purchase from Amazon