Table Of ContentLaurie Gottlieb has her eye on the future of health care and what is now required for new directions,
new paradigms, new thinking, to re-pattern our current outdated medical, illness-focused, problem-
directed orientation, if not f xation. Strengths-based nursing is refreshingly liberating; it is focused
on what is needed to sustain health and life itself. It is the necessary shift needed to redirect treat-
ment and caring models from disease to health. It brings to the foreground strengths and p ositive
options, and what is right, for our own daily living and health, versus what is wrong. This revolu-
tionary work offers a breath of life into dominant medically oriented care models and l iberates the
human spirit of both nurses and those we serve.
Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, Distinguished Professor Emerita
and Dean Emerita, University of Colorado Denver, College of Nursing,
Founder/Director: Watson Caring Science Institute
I enthusiastically recommend this book for every introduction to nursing course, and equally for
graduate nurses in Advanced Nursing Practice Master’s programs and nurses currently engaged in
practice.
Patricia Benner, RN, PhD, FAAN, Professor Emeritus
Strengths-Based Nursing Care is a phenomenal book! Dr. Gottlieb has developed an approach to nurs-
ing that I believe holds a key in revolutionizing not only the discipline of nursing, but all of health
care. She draws on the best traditions of nursing—the strengths of nursing itself that have endured
for ages. As Dr. Gottlieb explains, nursing’s deepest values have been derailed with the emergence
of the “technocratic era.” In this era, a def cit model prevails that emphasizes p roblems. Dr. Gottlieb
proposes that we can and must turn our focus on strengths, and bring together four elements of
strengths-based nursing—person-centered care, health promotion, collaborative p artnerships and
empowerment. I highly recommend this book for all nurses, and encourage all nursing faculty
everywhere to embrace this book as a basic text.
Peggy L. Chinn, RN, PhD, FAAN, Professor Emerita, University of Connecticut
In the hallowed tradition of Florence Nightingale, who argued that nursing’s mandate was “to put
the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him,” Gottlieb has captured the best within the
philosophical core of nursing theorizing and modernized it for today’s nurse. In Strengths-Based
Nursing Care, she deconstructs the f ne details of everyday nursing thinking and action, guiding the
development of a thoroughly moral, optimistic and practical clinical wisdom within the practitioner
across the spectrum of health and illness. Capturing our attention with examples and exemplars, she
takes us on an engaging and highly ref exive journey through how the health care world looks from
a genuinely nursing angle of vision. In an era of renewed interest in authentic patient engagement,
Gottlieb’s text will be an outstanding toolkit with which to support and develop the profession.
Sally Thorne, RN, PhD, FAAN, FCAHS, Professor, University of British Columbia
Laurie Gottlieb is an exemplary scholar who has produced a unique volume, which blends the
a ccumulated wisdom of several decades’ immersion in nursing with expert clinical testimony into
a new synthesis known as the Strengths-Based Model of Nursing. The book will appeal to students
and seasoned clinicians keen to expand and deepen their knowledge in their quest to unravel the
enigma of expertise.
Anne Marie Rafferty, CBE, BSc, MPhil, DPhil (Oxon), RGN, DN, FRCN,
FKC, FAAN, Professor, King’s College London
Strengths-Based Nursing Care is a welcome addition to the nursing literature. The author captures
much of what has been implicit in nursing by focusing on the positive. In its emphasis on persons’
strengths, this model has signif cant practice implications and provides considerable opportunities
to advance nursing science.
Joyce J. Fitzpatrick, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN, Professor of Nursing, Frances Payne Bolton
School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University
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Laurie N. Gottlieb, RN, PhD, is a professor at the Ingram School of Nursing, McGill
University, Montreal, Canada, where she holds the Flora Madeline Shaw Chair of
Nursing and is Nurse-Scholar-in-Residence at the Jewish General Hospital, a McGill
University teaching hospital. She was the Director of McGill School of Nursing from
1995–2001. She is Editor Emeritus of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research
(CJNR), a position she held for 22 years. She is the recipient of prestigious awards,
including the Centennial Award, the f rst and one-time-only award from the Canadian
Nurses Association recognizing the 100 most inf uential nurses in Canada; the L’Insigne
du Merite in 2009, the highest recognition accorded to a nurse from the Order of
Nurses of the Province of Quebec; and the Prix du Conseil Interprofessionnel du
Quebec (CIQ). Laurie Gottlieb further developed, researched, lectured, and published
extensively on the McGill Model of Nursing. T is initial model served as the basis
for the Developmental/Health Framework. T us, Strengths-Based Nursing Care, a
value-driven approach to nursing, represents a culmination of over 40 years of research
and thinking into nursing’s unique role in health and healing. Her books include
A Perspective on Health, Family, Learning and Collaborative Partnership (an edited book
on the early writings of the McGill Model of Nursing), A Collaborative Partnership
Approach to Care (with translations in French and Japanese), and Dreams Have No
Expiry Date: A Practical Way for Women to Take Charge of T eir Futures (with transla-
tions in Spanish, Dutch, Korean, and Portuguese). Dr. Gottlieb is currently collecting
stories of nursing practice for a book called Exquisite Nursing.
Collaborator:
Bruce Gottlieb, PhD, is a geneticist and a project director at the Lady Davis Institute
of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Canada. He is an adjunct professor in
McGill’s Ingram School of Nursing and a member of McGill’s Department of Human
Genetics.
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Strengths-Based Nursing Care
Health and Healing
for Person and Family
Laurie N. Gottlieb, RN, PhD
In collaboration with Bruce Gottlieb, PhD
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Copyright © 2013 Laurie N. Gottlieb
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Springer Publishing
Company, LLC, or authorization through payment of the appropriate fees to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.,
222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600,
To my twin sister, Linda
“Born together, friends forever” (Author unknown)
And to my family, Bruce, Michah, Arielle, Ilana,
Gabriella, Jordanna, and Itai
“I sustain myself with the love of family” (Maya Angelou)
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Gottlieb_PTR_CH00_03-08-12_i-xxxiv.indd vi 8/3/2012 9:28:30 PM
Contents
Our Expert Consultants ix
Our Frontline Nurses xv
Foreword Patricia Benner xvii
Preface xxi
Acknowledgments xxxi
PART I: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF STRENGTHS-BASED NURSING CARE
1. Why a Strengths-Based Approach to Care? 1
2. What Guides Practice? 35
3. Values Underlying Strengths-Based Nursing Care 56
4. What Are Strengths? Characteristics of Strengths 104
PART II: THE ESSENTIAL TOOL BOX: BASIC SKILLS REQUIRED TO PRACTICE STRENGTHS-BASED NURSING CARE
5. Essential Nurse Qualities Required for Strengths-Based Care 129
6. R etraining the Eight Senses for Nursing Practice 163
7. N ursing’s Professional Gaze: Observations for Clinical Judgment and
Decision Making 203
8. R eforming Skills of Social Involvement: Attunement, Authentic Presence,
Attentive Listening, and Clinical Conversation 252
PART III: STRENGTHS-BASED NURSING CARE IN PRACTICE
9. T e Spiraling Process for Uncovering and Discovering Strengths 313
10. Approaches for Working With Strengths 350
References 381
Index 401
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Our Expert Consultants
Sharyn Andrews, RN, BScN, is clinical nurse specialist,
Refl ective Practice in Nursing, McGill University Health Centre,
Montreal, Quebec.
Cheryl Armistead, RN, MScN, is faculty lecturer and
coordinator, undergraduate community health nursing pro-
gram, McGill University School of Nursing. Cheryl interviewed
the frontline nurses Maria Boggia and Charlotte Evans.
Sophie Baillargeon, RN, BScN, MScA, is nurse manager,
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Hemodialysis Unit, Montreal
Children’s Hospital, McGill University Health Centre. Sophie
interviewed the frontline nurse Monica Gallagher. Current:
Sophie is assistant to the Director of Nursing, McGill University
Health Centre.
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