A counselor is one who listens to a client's needs, responds with information based on his or her area of expertise, and facilitates the outcome that a client deserves. Nurses implement counseling skills that include communicating with patients, actively listening to the exchange of information, offering pertinent health teaching, and providing emotional support. For example, the nurse is discharging a patient that has been diagnosed HIV positive and is given a lengthy list of things to do and medication to take.

Nurses use comforting skills, to help patients cope during a time of crisis. Florence Nightingale's (the founder of modern nursing) presence and the light from her lamp communicated comfort to the frightened British soldiers. As a result of her heritage, contemporary nurses understood that illness often causes feelings of insecurity that may threaten the patients or family's ability to cope. This often causes them to be very vulnerable. It is then that the nurse uses comforting skills. Providing these skills is most important, when a patient or the patient's family need interventions that provide stability and security during a health-related crisis. Examples of this would be, but not limited to, death of a family member, an unsettling diagnosis, or a surgical outcome that is undesirable. The nurse becomes the patient's guide, companion, and interpreter. This supportive relationship generally brings about trust and reduces fear and worry.

Although treatment of the ill is a primary concern

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