Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy - Term Paper Example

The negative side of perfectionism is that it is fear-based thinking that is restrictive and inhibits people from thinking constructively (Burns, 1999). It is a mode of thinking that entails unrealistic expectations that are characteristic of self-criticism and negativity and is mostly unattainable. Healthcare professionals have policies and procedures required for their positions and delivery of quality service to patients. Therefore, being a perfectionist in healthcare drives expectations unrealistically high that it essentially hinders practitioners from working reasonably and making sound decisions (Burns, 1999).

            As nurses work towards motivating patients to strive for excellence in health management, recognizing their own perfectionist traits and the depressive symptoms that always accompany them will strengthen their practice (Flett & Hewitt, 2002). As a practitioner, I would work to make a change to this pattern in the working environment by encouraging fellow workers to stop thinking of their past mistakes. They should shun being intensely competitive and fearing performing worse than their colleagues. I would initiate this by accepting that I am not perfect myself, and stop demanding perfection from others. The team should develop a culture of asking for help and stop perceiving it as a flaw or weakness. Similarly, significant is to stop finding faults in others, and an opportunity to always correct a colleague. Everyone should give themselves time and space to develop reasonable expectations and a thinking mode that can reduce stress (Flett & Hewitt, 2002). Once individuals acknowledge and accept that underlying problems with perfectionist tendencies are existent, they can then devise new and more balanced patterns of looking at their previous achievements and future goals (Burns, 1999). Strategies aimed at reducing maladaptive perfectionist thinking will lessen feelings of low self-worth associated with depression.

            However, all change comes with uncertainty, challenges, learning, and redefining positions (Shafran & Egan, 2010). Most healthcare practitioners have a negative experience with change because it is always handed down from the management and before they settle into it, another change is introduced to replace it. I would advocate for long-term changes that allow the entire team enough time to settle in and adapt. I would also put focus on the process of change itself rather than the result and also involve the target team in formulating and implementing the change (Shafran & Egan, 2010).

            In conclusion, recognizing striving shifts from excellence to absolute perfection is a critical indicator of the need for change. Nurses, their colleagues, and patients are susceptible to depression-prone perfectionism as seen in always setting unrealistic goals and not being satisfied with one’s or other’s performance. Strategies to achieve balance include identifying perfectionist traits, organizing psychological and psychiatric therapies, and seeking evaluative feedback from different sources (Shafran & Egan, 2010).