Improving Patient Care Experience: Relevant Theories and Frameworks

Introduction
Nurses should acquire more professional behavioural standard and strategies in order
to improve the patient care experience. The experience of a 40 years old aboriginal woman
has been chosen as the case scenario for this paper. The main goal of nurses is to improve the
safety measurements and the quality of care for each and every patient. Improving the patient
care experience can be very much helpful for the healthcare organization in getting reputation
also (Nilsen, 2015). It can be achieved by improving service and delivery processes.
However, improving it can be challenging for all the nurses as variety of patients are admitted
and each of them holds different demands (Rahaman, Holmes & Chartrand, 2017). This paper
is going to describe some relevant theories and framework in this regard and it will also
analyze the case scenario of an aboriginal woman who shared her care experience. Finally,
the paper will conclude stating how the theories and frameworks can be applied in order to
improve the patient care experience.
Identification of relevant theories and frameworks
While taking care of patients, nurses follow various theories and one of them is
patient-centred care. It is a practice of caring patients by listening, informing and involving
patients in the care practices. In this care method, the opinion of patients is preferred (Van
Humbeeck, Dillen, Piers & Van den Noortgate, 2016). In the chosen case scenario, Raelene
Ward was suffering from diabetes since her 3rd gestational period and even after years of
giving birth to child. In her case, nurses did not inform her about the reason of diabetes and
they also did not provide any exercise or diet prior giving the insulin. Informing the patients
about the detail of their disease is one of the important rules of patient-centred care. Another
approach is family-centred care in which family members are involved in the patient care
process in order to provide an extra emotional support to the patient (Reamer, 2017). In the

chosen case scenario, the patient herself was a nurse by profession and being a nurse she
stated that she also embrace family-centred care. Involving the family members such as
allowing them to visit patients anytime as per the patients’ physical condition can provide an
additional mental support to them. At the same time maintain codes of ethics in the nursing
practices are also essential for better care (Clark, 2017). When she lost her sister it was a
great loss to her and it created a huge psychological impact. During that period grief and loss
framework to support the patient was required and in this purpose, counselling of the patient
would provide an additional psychological support to overcome the grief.As per her age,
Erikson’s stages of nursing care she required mental support also (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele
& Robinson, 2018) in which the nurses should be actively and respectfully listen to her and
acknowledge her life experience. Nurses also encourage patients to participate in some
activities that have meaning for them. Some pros and cons of the theories related to nursing
can be identified. Patient and family centred care always improve the health outcomes and it
is cost-effective also as it decreases the annual number of referral visits and lowers the
number of laboratory tests ordered which in turn reduces the cost. Again the Erikson’s stage
helps to provide the additional support to control the stress. In this way the relationship
between nurses and patient becomes stronger (Clark, 2017).During the sister’s death it could
help her to get over the stress. However, application of these theories into the nursing
practices can increase the workload of the nurses and due to over stress they cannot establish
genuine therapeutic relationship with the patients easily. Sometimes, in patient-centred care,
opinion of the patients can create barrier in the treatment. Over involvement of family can
hamper the treatment procedure too (Foster, Whitehead & Maybee, 2016).
Analysis of the communication scenario
In the case scenario, Raelene Ward was suffering from chronic diabetes and the care
she took was quite ineffective due to various reasons as it was really not a patient-centred

care. Several examples from the case scenario can be given in support of it. First of all, when
she was diagnosed with diabetes, the nurses associated in her care did not inform Raelene
about the reason of the issue. Moreover, they did not suggest any diet or exercise before
putting insulin. They directly went for the insulin. Along with that, at the very beginning of
the diagnosis of her disease, she got support from a dietician. But, during her whole treatment
process no dietician was involved. Diabetes is basically a non-curable and long-term chronic
disease which Raelene was suffering since years and it consists of compliance in medication
and management also. During this long period she was not supported by any dietician. Apart
from that, during the treatment procedure, she lost her sister which created a great negative
impact on her life. She became more stressful which was not good for a diabetic patient as it
can worsen the condition. But, she did not receive any counselling or psychological support
as a part of her care management (Nilsen, 2015). Moreover, as per her age, as she was 40
years old, the stage of generativity vs. stagnation in Erikson’s stage was appropriate for her
(Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele & Robinson, 2018). In this stage she required stress reduction
support which she did not receive. So, all these proved that the care provided to the patient
was quite ineffective in nature which requires some more efficiency as well as effectiveness.
Again, from the case scenario, it has also been found that Raelene received some
effective care as she got the support from a team of healthcare professionals during her
treatment procedure. An Endocrinologist, midwives, and the doctors were always there to
assess her when she went into antenatal. On a regular basis, the team of the healthcare experts
would see her. Even, at the beginning there was dietician also. Apart from that, there were
aboriginal staffs also present in the hospital and if any patient wanted then the aboriginal
worker would come to provide the patient some additional mental support when required,
being from the same community (American Diabetes Association, 2014). However, the care