Partnering with Patients: Importance of Effective Collaboration in Healthcare

The essay analyzes the significance of effective partnering of healthcare professionals with patients to ensure quality care and patient satisfaction. It discusses person-centered care, collaborating with patients in decision-making, importance of developing therapeutic relationship, skilled communication and its impacts on patients and many others. The essay uses Gibb’s reflective cycle as the chosen framework.

Running head: PARTNERING WITH PATIENTS
PARTNERING WITH PATIENTS
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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The essay will focus on the significance of effective partnering of the healthcare
professionals with the patients to ensure quality care and patient satisfaction. The assignment
will mainly analyze a case study where a patient named William Taylor had described the
different positive and negative impacts of the care he had received from the different healthcare
professionals in different phases of his life. Different important topics would be discussed in
order to reflect effectively on the experiences of the patient. These topics would include person-
centered care, collaborating with patients in decision-making, importance of developing
therapeutic relationship, skilled communication and its impacts on patients and many others.
Gibb’s reflective cycle would be used as the chosen framework.
Mr. William Taylor is a 75 year-old man. He is highly vulnerable to fall and he has
experienced several episodes of falls that resulted in skin tear, bruises as well as cuts. He did not
want to visit the public hospitals for treatment of fall as he received poor care and attention from
the healthcare professionals there when he suffered from stones in his kidney. Moreover, surgeon
who needed to care for his wounds communicated insensitively with the patient making him feel
disrespected. However, he received very good quality care from the physiotherapist as he
attended to all his needs effectively. Moreover, the healthcare professionals who were
conducting iron-transfusion to the patient provided a person centered care to him, tried to
develop a bond with him, were empathetic and communicated with him throughout. This
behavior and approach satisfied him. Moreover, the professionals who conducted the pill-cam
incorporation as well as those who treated his diabetes type-2 disorder made him effective
partners in decision-making, educated him entirely about the disorders and the management
procedures. This made him more compliant with the treatment procedures. However, he had
mentioned one important incidence. The doctor who attended his father had conducted surgery of

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leg amputation without involving his father and other members in decision-making procedures.
This incident had affected the entire family largely.
I was quite surprised to see how different approaches taken by the healthcare
professionals while caring for Mr. Taylor had significant negative or positive impacts on his
health. I felt annoyed at the communication style of the surgeon and imagined how the
insensitive comments made by him could have hurt his self-esteem and would have made him
feel powerless and weak. I was even disappointed at the careless approach and insensitive
behavior exhibited to the patient by the professionals in the public hospitals. He was neither
attended and none of the members approached him to know how his pain was. This had resulted
in development of apathy of the patient towards public hospital professionals. However, the
approach taken by the gastroenterologist and professionals who treated his diabetes impressed
me. I got overwhelmed seeing how well they have partnered with Mr. Taylor and had
successfully educated him about the disorders, technologies, medications and others. This aspect
had made the patient satisfied.
I believe that the professionals who treated the patient initially were insensitive and were
not at all compassionate towards the patients. I have strong sense of compassion, empathy and
sensitivity. These values and beliefs had guided me from my childhood in any interaction that I
have with others in my life. These attributes had helped me to not be judgmental and in place
helped me to try to visualize the situations from their points of view. Therefore, I could
successfully develop relationships with others and everyone was fond of my kindness. The
healthcare professionals did not show empathy and compassion to William and the surgeon
spoke insensitively. These affected his satisfaction level and developed an apathy in him that
affected his help-seeking behavior from healthcare professionals. Other important values that I

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also possess are accountability and responsibility. I believe that I need to be answerable to the
actions that I take and should take the responsibility of development of health of the patients who
comes from my service. The doctor who attended the patient’s father was not accountable and
responsible enough and therefore he conducted the surgery even without consulting the patent or
others. This inappropriate approach affects dignity of patients (Rance & Treolar, 2015). I feel
blessed that the values and beliefs that I have harbored from my early childhood and during the
professional years would help me to provide best service to the patients.
Nursing governance comprises of a number of factors that involve participation of the
nurses in management meetings or team meetings to ensure providing collaborative care to the
patients. This care also needs to include effective partnering with the patients, consumers,
clinicians and managements so that appropriate evidence based interventions can be provided to
patients. They also need to advocate on the behalf of the patients to ensure that all needs and
requirements of the patients are met (Veller et al., 2018). Open disclosures to patients and
families are extremely important. Secondly, professionals also need to ensure development of
therapeutic relationship with the patients. Researchers are of the opinion that relationship
development helps in building of bonds and reduces anxiety and stress in patients (Boyd &
Sheen, 2014). This has positive impacts on health of patients. Professionals also need to ensure
that they communicate with patients with empathy and compassion. This aspect makes the
patients feel that the professionals are interested in their health genuinely. It helps in developing
a bond of trust and the patient feels comfortable in the presence of the professionals 9Scholz et
al., 2018). While caring for William, the professionals of public hospital as well as the surgeon
neither communicated with him empathetically nor showed any compassion. This created a
barrier in relationship development and the patient was seen to be highly dissatisfied. Nursing

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governance was entirely absent as they neither handled his case sensitively nor provided him
high quality care.
However, the care provided to the patient by the latter professionals was adequate and
satisfied the patient. The professionals who cared for his diabetes and iron infusion had adopted a
person-centered approach. He had been included as an active participant in making decisions of
his own health. Person-centered care puts patients in the centre of decision-making and invites
equal participation from patients. This makes the patients feel empowered 9Hoos et al., 2015).
They feel that their dignity and autonomy are respected. These aspects have positive impacts on
the health outcomes of the patients and make the patient more compliant. The analysis of the
interview showed that the patient was educated well by the professionals and this had helped in
developing his health literacy. Health literacy makes the patients more confident as well as
compliant with the system. It makes them understand the rationales of the medication and the
treatments (Dawda & True, 2015). Therefore, they feel empowered and can manage their
disorders confidently. Therefore, William was also able to manage his iron deficiency and
diabetes issues successfully. In order to manage co-morbid disorders, professionals can also use
electronic health record systems. This would help in documentation of all-important information
about the patient in electron modes and prevent any communication gaps and misunderstanding
to nurses of other shifts or those who take up delegation process (Synnot et al., 2018).
One of the negative indicators that can be concluded is the lack of empathy and
compassion during communication with the patient. The surgeon communicated insensitively
with the patient that made him feel disrespected and powerless. Such actions have negative
health outcomes on the patients and affect the help-seeking behavior of the patients affecting
dignity and self-respect (Washington, 2016). Another negative indicator was negligent care that

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he received from the healthcare professionals of the public hospitals. They did not maintain their
responsibility and could not care for the patient when he was suffering from pain. Such casual
approach of the professionals affects the relationship development between the professionals and
the patients hampering their trust and impeding patient satisfaction (Kaufman et al., 2015). This
affects the patients negatively making them feel humiliated and uncared and prevents them from
getting healthcare service again. This further deteriorates their health conditions.
One of the positive indicators was the effective collaborating of the professionals with the
patient in his treatment of diabetes and iron-deficiency. The patient was actively involved in the
decision-making. Person-centered approaches consider patients as unique individuals where each
of them has their own needs and requirements (Farmer et al., 2018). The professionals in case of
William had collaborated and partnered with him and had helped him to make decision. The
patient was found to be more confident regarding the management of the disorders as the close
analysis of the interview found put. Another positive indicator that the patient had received
adequate care is the health literacy that he had developed. The National Safety and Quality
Health standards have supported the importance of collaborating with the consumers to enhance
the quality of care and ensure better outcomes on health of the patients. Effective partnering of
the professionals had ensured them to educate William in way by which he understands the
rationale of the medications given to him and also the cause of occurrence of the disorder. This
health knowledge had helped him to manage the complex disorders successfully.
I need to develop my communication skills, as they are not competent enough to develop
therapeutic relationship with patients. I am introvert by nature and hence, I will be joining
workshops. These workshops will be held on weekends under mentors who can help me identify
my weakness and accordingly guide me for development of the communication skills. In order to

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develop person-centred values for effective collaboration, I would carry out evidence-based
searches from online databases. This would help me to gather most up-to-date information about
the skills that I need to possess and the ways to develop them. These would help me to become
best nursing professional in the future.
From the above discussion, it can be seen that effective collaboration with patients and
making them active participants in decision-making in their own care can make them feel
empowered. The patients feel respected and this helps in developing effective bonds with the
professionals. The patients are seen to feel less stressed and anxious and can manage their
disorders efficiently. The professionals of the public hospitals and surgeon did not adopt this
approach and so the care that was provided could not satisfy the patient. The other professionals
made William an active partner in his own health decision making. The patient was seen to feel
more confident and more empowered. I also will try to adopt the good attributes to provide best
care to the patients in future.

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