Random Thoughts About The Nurse-Patient Relationship

TheCommuter, BSN, RN

According to Pullen and Mathias (2010), a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is defined as a helping relationship that's based on mutual trust and respect, the nurturing of faith and hope, being sensitive to self and others, and assisting with the gratification of your patient's physical, emotional, and spiritual needs through your knowledge and skill. In other words, a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship focuses mainly on the patient.

I have come to believe that the modern day nurse-patient relationship is undergoing some serious strain due to several factors, including short staffing, high nurse-patient ratios, and time constraints combined with sicker patients who are actually requiring more of our time with each passing year. The nurse must spend an inordinate amount of time completing redundant documentation in several different places, hunting for supplies, wearing multiple hats, and performing other tasks.

For instance, if the need for a cleanup arises and the housekeeping staff has left for the day, nursing staff must address it. If the remote control is not functioning properly and maintenance staff is nowhere to be found, the nurse is usually the person who must try to resolve the issue.

Essential ingredients of the nurse-patient relationship, such as mutual trust, confidence, and regard for one another, simply take some time to build and maintain. This bond is something that cannot be fostered within a matter of a couple of minutes.

It takes time.

However, today's harried healthcare system does not realistically allocate enough time in each shift to foster the most solid nurse-patient relationships possible. I honestly believe that the vast majority of nurses display caring and compassion as much as humanly possible during each interaction, but some caregivers do not always have the time to communicate their concern effectively to all patients and their families. As a result, some patients and family members who do not sense this concern might feel displeased and be more prone to file complaints or pursue legal action for poor outcomes.

Past studies have shown that patients and families are more likely to refrain from submitting complaints or filing lawsuits if they experienced therapeutic nurse-patient relationships and perceived that their caregivers actually cared about them. Therefore, I feel that it is in the best interests of all healthcare facilities to increase staffing, decrease the outrageous nurse-patient ratios, and basically allocate more time to allow nursing staff to foster solid nurse-patient relationships. After all, it will save facilities a great deal of money later on down the line.

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Random Thoughts About The Nurse-Patient Relationship

About TheCommuter, BSN, RN

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