Clinical nurse practice and obesity Study of two clinical nurse practices regarding relationship to the self of obese patients at the clinical nutrition service of a university hospital

This research conducted in the field of social sciences applied to psychology at University Fernando Pessoa, addresses obese person care. First of all, a literature review offers a state
of the art of updated scientific knowledge in the field. It appears that disorders of the relationship to the self and to the body are pervasive among obese persons, in particular physical discomfort, body image, bodily representation and bodily dissatisfaction. In spite of this, bodily mediated support focusing on subjective relation to the body and to the self, is lacking in national and international recommandations.
Our research is a health observational survey, conducted within the nutrition service of Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital, on existing practices of two clinical nurses, with no
interference to the patients’ care pathway. In an innovative manner, these two nurses offer to their obese patients a health care protocole using bodily appraoches of the relation to self.
Our study aims at assessing the relevance of including bodily approaches with such population in such institutional framework. We have therefore developed a mixed method research protocole, using on the one hand a quantitative analysis on a self-administered questionnaire to seventy-five participants, and on the other hand, two qualitative analyses, one investigating open questions of the self-administered questionnaire and the other investigating clinical interviews of eighteen participants. This research shows the relevance of using a mixed method when studying the complexe contents of lived experience. It also points out the different benefits of bodily mediated therapeutic relationship in obesity health care.