Therapeutic and Non-therapeutic Relationship Essay
At the core of nursing practice is the concept of care, which encourages a positive relationship between the patient and the caregiver. A nurse-patient therapeutic relationship is described as a supporting relationship founded on mutual confidence and affection, fostering faith and hope, being compassionate to one and others, and caring with experience and expertise to meet the physical, mental, and spiritual desires of the patient. As such, this paper seeks to delve into the qualities that practitioners need to develop to establish therapeutic or non-therapeutic relationships with their patients.
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There are various qualities that a health professional need to adopt in order to develop a nurse-patient therapeutic relationship. A nurse should introduce himself/herself to the patient and use the patient’s name when referring to them (Valente, 2017). A handshake during the first meeting is also a good approach to build trust and affection easily.
Other patients require more therapeutic contact, such as hugging or handholding while other patients prefer not to be touched, hence the need to determine patient preferences. Valente (2017) further notes that nurses should value and respect cultural differences, something that they can achieve by closely observing and interpreting a patient’s verbal and non-verbal cues. One should understand the patients concerns by restating what he has said. For instance, “Mrs. Johnson, you said that you were concerned that your bone pain won’t be treated in an appropriate manner?”
However, there are qualities that contribute to non-therapeutic relationship. The first beig lack of adequate knowledge. A nurse may have limited knowledgeable on how to interact with their patients, an aspect that can hamper nurse-patient engagement. The deficiency of clinical communication knowledge can lead to an inappropriate therapeutic relationship (Feo et al., 2017). When there is a strong bond between the nurse and the patient, the client will be free to talk to the practitioner about all their issues.
As broached in this paper, good nurse-patient therapeutic relationship enhances both patient outcomes and professional contentment. Good therapeutic relationship also helps in saving time and builds a patient’s trust in the practitioner, which translates into better treatment management such as through enhanced adherence to prescribed medication. As such, it is imperative for nurses to adopt great therapeutic qualities in order to realize patient safety and excellent health outcomes for their patients.
Therapeutic and Non-therapeutic Relationship Essay References
Valente, S. M. (2017). Managing professional and nurse–patient relationship boundaries in mental health. Journal Of Psychosocial Nursing And Mental Health Services, 55(1), 45-51. https://doi.org/10.3928/02793695-20170119-09
Feo, R., Rasmussen, P., Wiechula, R., Conroy, T., & Kitson, A. (2017). Developing effective and caring nurse-patient relationships. Nursing Standard, 31(28), 54-63. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns.2017.e10735