Applying Stanislavski to Nursing Education

By closely examining Stnaislavski’s Method of Physical Action alongside Person-Centred Nursing in this chapter, I seek to apply actor training and drama to the theory and practice of person-centred nursing. I begin with a critique of Stanislavski’s ‘emotion memory’, and how it has been taken up in some drama and nursing interventions as an approach for nurses to understand—and often empathise with—others. This critique extends to illustrate how the notion of empathy is related to emotion memory, and so I argue sympathetic presence and the Method of Physical Action are synergistic, and offer a counter to ‘emotion memory’ and empathy. This argument seeds the central premise of this book in advocating for sympathetic presence, and for applied drama as a medium through which to understand and practice it. This chapter then turns to four techniques from Stanislavski’s MoPA, interrogating their applicability as concepts and practices in the context of enhancing the development of person-centred nurses. An analysis of ‘actions’ highlights how person-centred communication should focus on inter-subjective meaning. ‘Objectives’, meanwhile, help provide nurses with a clear, concise, and creative approach to identifying and meeting the needs of others as well as better understanding one’s own. ‘Given Circumstances’ helps us to see what is acting in the background of a situation, as well as a better appreciation of the ever-changing and often chaotic contexts nurses work in. Last, looking at ‘Attention’ shows how we can be conscious with our focus and provide practice to bring all of our senses along with what we notice around us.