The organizational influence on counselling relationships in a general hospital setting

Counselling is becoming increasingly important as a development of nursing practice. The Scope of Professional Practice has enabled the emergence of the nurse, midwife and health visitor as a hybrid practitioner, the nurse counsellor. This paper explores the nature of the 'nurse counsellor's' role. The paper makes a distinction between counselling skills as a feature of the nurses' role and counselling practice. It examines the influence exerted through the organizational context of the work setting. The author explores the issues as they arise in a general health setting and makes a case for organizational empathy toward what is essentially an embryonic and potentially misunderstood development of nursing practice.