Principles of Person Centred Care in Nursing

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1NURSING
Person centred care (PCC) is an approach that focuses on the fulfilment of individual
person’s desire, needs, goals and cultural preferences during the care process. PCC is
effective in achieving the goals of improving health care quality, care coordination and
improving the quality of life of patient (Brummel‐Smith et al. 2016). This care approach is
applied in clinical setting by being responsive to patient’s need, respecting their individual
values and preferences, fostering trusting relationship with patient, promoting autonomy and
actively involving patient’s and family in care decision making (Ross, Tod and Clarke 2015).
The main purpose of this essay is to discuss about the principles of PCC and explore how
nurses can partner with consumers to improve care quality and safety of patients during care
delivery.
For all health care staff, having an understanding about PCC and its important
element is critical to understand how care quality can be improved and patient’s satisfaction
with care can be maintained. The eight principles of PCC as defined by Rawson and Moretz
(2016) is an important framework for nurse to identify the elements of PCC and the method
of application of PCC in clinical setting. The eight principles of PCC includes respect for
patient’s preferences, coordination of care, , physical comfort, emotional comfort, continuity
and transition of care, information on education, family and friends participation and access
to care. The first principle of PCC involves respecting patient’s value by involving patient in
decision making and treating patient with dignity, respect and cultural sensitivity. The
research study by Kamrul, Malin and Ramsden (2014) justifies that culturally appropriate
care and cultural competency is critical in PCC to develop understanding regarding cultural
differences in care and demonstrating congruent behaviours to work effectively in cross
cultural situations.
The second principle of PCC involves coordination and integration of care to reduce
feelings of vulnerability among patient. This can develop patient’s perspective regarding the

2NURSING
rationale for each treatment and the significance of following a treatment regimen. The third
principle of PCC involves actively informing patient about disease and health issue by
regularly communicating information about clinical status, disease progress and process of
care. This is also critical to facilitate patient autonomy during care process (Rawson and
Moretz 2016). Sedig (2016) defines that autonomy and informed consent is vital for nurse to
deliver PCC because maintaining autonomy is a process that acknowledges that patients have
the right to make their care decisions. This make patient’s aware about all risk and benefits of
an intervention and any chance of conflict is reduced. Hence, nurses working with diverse
patient group must take the responsibility to inform patient about clinical status, disease
progress and upcoming treatment. Being informed reduces uncertainty and confusion among
patient. In addition, informed consent helps to fulfil the ethical obligations in care process
too.
The Picker’s principle of PCC mentions about the element of promoting physical and
emotional comfort for patient. This emphasize that while caring for patient, nurse must
emphasize not only on physical comfort but also on emotional comfort. This will help to
address fear and anxiety associated with illness (Rawson and Moretz 2016). Patients require
emotional support because of uncertainty, fear, financial impact because of disease and effect
on family because of disease. These factors increase mental stress and anxiety in patient
which can have an impact on treatment outcome and adherence with the treatment process.
Hence, the key responsibilities that nurse must fulfil to promote emotional comfort and
alleviate fear and anxiety among patients involves using patient reported measured to identity
level of emotional support needed by patient and use this information to inform quality
improvement efforts. Patient with diabetes and cancer are in need of reassurance and
psychological comfort so that they develop the confidence to manage their disease and