How Nurses Develop Therapeutic Relationships with Consumers who have Schizophrenia

Mental Health Nursing 1
Mental Health Nursing
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Mental Health Nursing 2
How Nurses Develop Therapeutic Relationships with Consumers who have
Schizophrenia
Developing therapeutic alliances has been shown to be a very important aspect when
caring for the mentally ill (Flaskas, 2018). To develop such relationships there are certain
characteristics that nurses must have. This part will focus on how the nurses develop
therapeutic alliances with persons who have schizophrenia. Extensive evidence has found out
that nurses who successfully develop therapeutic relationships do so using three main traits.
The first one is collaboration. The nurse and the consumer should work together to establish
the goals of their relationship. Collaboration means that both the nurse and the consumer are
involved in forming and strengthening the therapeutic relationship. There exists evidence to
show that a therapeutic relationship that is developed this way is likely to last more and
achieve its objectives. The aspect of collaboration in a therapeutic alliance also helps the
consumer to achieve a state of psychological wellbeing. For a person to be healthy, it is
important to ensure that the consumer is psychological and emotionally stable. In addition to
these advantages, mutual collaboration between a nurse and a consumer has been shown to
strengthen the accountability between both parties in therapeutic relationships. This kind of
accountability in important in achieving the goals of mental health care.
The second way through which nurses build a therapeutic relationship with consumers
who have schizophrenia is through being empathetic. Empathy is a complex term that refers
to the ability to understand the exact situation that the patient is currently in (Kazantzis,
Dattilio and Dobson, 2017). In other words, it is the ability of a nurse to fit into the shoes of a
consumer. Through being empathetic, a nurse is able to pay a central focus to the consumer
and how they are feeling. The nurse may even verbalize this to show the consumer that they
understand their situation and comfort them. It is worth noting that empathy is very different
from sympathy. Sympathy is associated with feelings of pity. Empathy, on the other hand,

Mental Health Nursing 3
involves compassion. It is the appreciation that every human being deserves happiness and
not suffering (Sternberg and Sternberg, 2016).
The third way used by nurses to create therapeutic relationships with patients who
have schizophrenia is through having positive regard. Positive regard means that the nurse
respects the patient (Carroll and Linsley, 2018). It is the ability of a nurse to treat the patient
as a person who is worth and dignified. It is the ability to attach great respect and dignity to
human life. With this aspect, the nurse is able to build a strong therapeutic relationship. In
addition, the nurse-patient relationship is likely to lead to a faster healing process. In most
cases, respect is communicated through actions and not words. For instance, the nurse may
employ the attitude of willingness to work with the consumer. This willingness will help
show the consumer that the nurse creates their relationship seriously. There are some actions
that the nurse may carry out to show respect towards the consumer. For instance, the nurse
should not be judgemental to the consumer. In addition, the nurse should endeavor to help the
consumer recover through the use of resources that the consumer has access to.
Why Nurses Develop Therapeutic Relationships with Consumers who have
Schizophrenia
There are several reasons why nurses develop therapeutic relationships with
consumers who have schizophrenia. These are related to the methodology that the nurses use
to establish these relationships. This section is going to focus on why nurses develop these
relationships. One of the reasons is to help the consumer identify the reality within
themselves. As noted above, nurses create these relationships through being genuine. When
nurses do not hide behind their professional roles and are genuine with the consumer, they set
an environment of reality (Muran and Safran, 2017). This environment helps the consumer to