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On Relationality
By Dr. Louela Manankil-Rankin
Professional Practice
Relationality involves an invitation to a particular type of relationship that calls to mind authentic engagement with the “other” where dialogue in multiple forms become the medium for communication (Gergen, 2009; Hersted & Gergen, 2013; Schwind, 2016). Bohm (1996) claims that dialogue takes place in an open space where judgment is suspended. In the context of relationality, intent is set to understand the position or standpoint of the “other”. Doane and Varcoe (2015) introduce the term synchrony meaning that there is attunement with the “other”. It is this synchronous collaboration between patient and practitioner that facilitates the opportunity for expanding consciousness, which further augments the process of wisdom. In the context of the nurse-patient relationship, it is in joining with the patient in a therapeutic relationship that opens the space for healing.
Furthermore, Doane and Varcoe (2015) claim that conceptualizing individuals relationally means understanding that each person “has a unique, personal, socio-historical location that shapes a person’s identity, experience, interpretations, and ways of being in the world” (p. 15). Engaging relationally involves values, intent, knowledge, commitment, decision-making, and actions (Doane & Varcoe, 2015). Within the context of relationality, both the nurse’s being and that of the patient enter into a common space for dialogue and collaboration. What happens within this co-constructed space becomes the essence of nursing care and the patient experience.
Acting relationally is not limited to the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship. Relationality is also the construct for understanding professional relationships as they exist in multiple forms within a system (Taos Institute, Relational Practice in Health Care Conference, 2016). Thus, relational practice involves knowing how to bring one’s voice to collaborative teams within multiple levels of an organization.
Education
Being relational means a particular orientation that involves skilful engagement with others. In a teaching and learning relationship, it means nurturing the capacities for compassion, curiosity, commitment, competence, and corresponding (Doane & Varcoe, 2015) between teacher and learner. Linking this to moral obligations – it would mean that one needs to understand what moral obligations are and how to embody them to eventually live them. Experiencing the pain of another person, feeling compassion for the “other”, tuning into another’s suffering is a trigger/calling/invitation that points one’s inner compass toward moral obligation. Feeling compassion is one way to engage one’s moral obligation. In teaching-learning contexts, the teacher takes the opportunity to teach these qualities through role modeling and creative self-expression approaches.