Nursing in Borderline Personality Disorder

This essay aims to develop an idea about evaluating the symptoms of Trish’s Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) with the effectiveness of the therapeutic relationship used during the treatment of this disease. Trish went through different childhood relationship difficulties which manifested later in her as BPD. Her childhood was full of relationship difficulties, attachment problems and adjustment problems while habituating in the new environment. She also exhibited self-harming tendencies and many other issues. The therapeutic relationship would be helpful in Trish’s treatment as she needs affection and ‘understanding’ from people in the surrounding.

Running head: NURSING IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
NURSING IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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NURSING IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
This essay aims to develop an idea about evaluating thesymptoms of Trish’s
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) with the effectiveness of the therapeutic relationship
used during the treatment of this disease. Trish went through different childhood relationship
difficulties which manifested later in her asBPD. Her childhood was full of relationship
difficulties, attachment problems and adjustment problems while habituating inthe new
environment. She also exhibited self-harming tendencies and many other issues. The
therapeutic relationship would be helpful in Trish’s treatment as she needs affection and
‘understanding’ from people in the surrounding.
For this reason, a professional nurse needs to be assigned to this case. Nursing standards and
holistic care policies should be maintained so that a psychologicalrelationship develops with
the patient during the treatment methods(Cristea, 2017). In thefollowingessay,the therapeutic
relationship with Trish has been discussed while treating her symptoms and promoting her
mental health while preparingher for completerecovery.
Trish is a 28-year-old British woman experiencing Borderline Personality Disorder
which is affecting hermental life and social life. Shewasmainly suffering from attachment
problem, self-harming habits, a non-engaging mentality which resultedin her numerous
transfers from and to different hospitals.Trish hassevere relationship issues along with a lack
of self-esteem and self-confidence which rendered her thoughts negatively biased, about her
surroundings. Trish also thinks that she has no connections with the world. She was sexually
abused at seventeen years of age which gave rise to her self-harming behaviour.Trish also
suffered from several separation anxieties. She was a non-adjusting person in her childhood
for she had multiple anxiety problems with changing environments, buther family never took
these factors seriously.They hoped she would be normal like other children and neglected the
issue. According to ICD-10 2016version, these character traits can be classified as BPD
symptoms, and these character traits became her relationship problems and resulted in

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separation anxiety which provoked her to harm her self (Icd.who.int, 2019).To prevent her
self-harming behaviour, I should be able to communicate with her to let her open up to me.
The personality of the patient needs to be considered and accepted as it is,for an excellent
communication and therapeutic relationship as affection is one of the factors that impact the
mental health of these patients. The therapeutic relationship with Trish will be forged in
terms of trust, proper communication, affection for health and emotion plays a vital role
inrelation development (Klingaman, 2015).
NMC code 2015 proposed that therapeutic relationship with a patient can be
implicated using proper communication, affection, prioritizing patient needs and respecting
the dignity of the patient along with confidentiality maintenance. Theseare essential factors in
the treatment of BPD(Nmc.org.uk, 2019).NMC code 2015 also states that communication
and affection are the most crucial factors in person-centred therapy for BPD patients. All
these factors should be brought to use by a professional nurse who has some experience with
psychological treatment policies. Other than these aspects, a nurse should consider the
holistic approach of nursing care to build up a trustworthy relation with the patient.
Communication skills of a nurse are one of thosecritical skills that can prove to be beneficial
in therapeutic relationship build-up,and thus proper listening skill, understanding skill,
sensitive nature and decent explaining abilities should beused in case of communication with
patients (Sulzer, 2016). However, in the case of Trish, the ill-treatmentof previous
hospitalslead toa negative impact on her mental state that affected her trusting abilities. Lack
of affection from anyone around her is another factor which resulted in her lack of self-
confidence.
Trish had several relationships in a shortperiod which indicate a possible instability of
her mind with a quick responsive behaviour to any affectionate stimulus. This factor should
be considered as a trait to develop a significant relationship and can be used to keep her from

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loneliness (Wlodarczyk, 2018). Thus proper communication skills can improve the thought
process of a patient suffering from BPD and however, the NMC nursing standards need to be
maintained to form atherapeutic relationship with the patient as well. Accountable
professional, promoting health and preventing ill health, assessing needs with planning
careareessential standards that need to be considered as a licensed nurse to treat this kind of
patients (Nmc.org.uk 2019).Other than verbal and nonverbal communication, patient centred
care is also a critical factor which shall be useful in gaining the trust of Trish, and then the
interpersonal relationship build-up comes in place for the further treatment process.
Murdaugh, Parsons and Pender(2018) highlighted that the Health Promotion Model of
Dr. Nola Pender suggests the health promotion would be possible by spreading motivation
tothe patients and verbal communication alsoplay a key role in case of Trish as she seeks
affection from the surrounding people. However, non-verbalcommunications would also be
helpful in interpersonal relationship build-up. The professional boundaries need to be
considered in forming the therapeutic relationship with Trish as she is sufferingfrom BPD
and it helps the nurse to treat the patient appropriately. According to Tschuschkeet al. (2015),
the sense of confidentiality and privacy needs to be addressed in maintaining a therapeutic
relationship with Trish to help her open up about her present mindset, and that willaid in the
prevention of her self-harming intentions as well.
To treat Trish’s BPD, I need to consider a care plan which needs to include the
communication that excludes any negative statements about her past life. The negative
psychological determinants of her pastare also required to be avoided in anyconversation.
The nurse should maintain a loving relationship with Trish. The care plan should assess the
period and even prioritize the needs of Trish to improve her self-confidence and self-esteem
along with lessening her self-harming nature.All these factors need to be evaluated for the
health promotion and improvement of the patient (Simpson 2016).

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Based on the above discussion it can be concluded that a health care specialist or a
nurse should be able to maintain the NHS nursing standards and prioritize the patient
suffering BPD. To treat and promote health care for Trish,I should be focusing on verbal and
non-verbal communication with her showing affection to her and avoid negative statements
on her past life and consider her privacy as well. All these factors will be needed to find in
forming a therapeutic relationship with her and promoting her health condition in a positive
direction.

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