Importance of Patient Engagement in Healthcare

This essay argues how patient participation is important in maintaining quality and safe patient outcomes in healthcare. It discusses the different important aspects of patient engagement in healthcare and the ways it results in positive health outcomes on patients. It also provides strategies for nurses to include patients in their own care processes.

Running head: PATIENT ENGAGEMENT
PATIENT ENGAGEMENT
Name of the student:
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Author note:

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PATIENT ENGAGEMENT
Patient engagement is considered to be one of the most significant attributes of quality
and safe care by the nurses. This essay will argue how patient participation is important in
maintaining quality and safe patient outcomes in healthcare. This assignment will discuss the
different important aspects of patient engagement in healthcare and the ways it results in
positive health outcomes on patients.
Patient participation in decision-making is one of the important principles of patient-
centred care and every nursing professional should incorporate such attributes in their care
practices. A review of various literatures had revealed that patient participation in healthcare
has been associated with improved treatment outcomes (Barello et al., 2016). These
literatures have shown that patient participation causes improvement in the control of
diabetes, better physical functioning in case of arthritis, improvement in the health of patients
with myocardial infarctions and others. Patient participation is also seen to increase patient’s
compliance with medication and with secondary preventive actions.
Nursing leaders as well as the organizations have the responsibility of guiding novice
nurses and emphasizing the importance of participation of the patients in decision making
process (Menichetti et al., 2016). The nurse leaders need to motivate both the nurses as well
as the healthcare teams to promote participation of the patients in treatment decision making.
The leaders need to ensure that the efforts of the novice nurses should include enhancement
of the access of the patient to various forms of multifaceted information providing patents
with different systems and tools that would help patients in decision-making. Hardyman
(2015) had supported the fact and stated that when nurses are able to enhance the patient
participation and consider patients as equal partners in healthcare decision-making, the
patients feel encouraged to take part in their own treatment procedures and thereby follow the
treatment plan. In this way, nurse leaders can ensure that a better health maintenance service
is provided to patients.

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Every registered nursing professional have the responsibility of ensuring clinical risk
management. Clinical risk management is mainly concerned with improvement of the quality
as well as the safety of the healthcare services by identification of the circumstances and the
opportunities that put the patients at risks of harm and then acting in order to prevent and
control those risks (Graffigna et al., 2015). It has been found that including patients in their
own care relates with the reduction of the risks of erroneous treatments by healthcare teams.
When nurse leaders guide their healthcare team members to include patients in their own
care, the patients feel accepted (Irizzary et al., 2017). The patients tend to reveal important
information that can prevent the application of wrong treatments or medications that can have
threatening situations on the patients.
Nurse leaders also have the duty of quality improvement and modification of
management practices that ensure high quality care. When registered nurses include patients
in their own care, they can ensure higher levels of patient satisfaction. One of the best ways
of ensuring patient participation is to engage the patient in giving informed consent (Singh et
al., 2016). Informed consent allows the registered nurses to use their leadership attributes and
thereby guide the patients first by discussing their disorders in details and then explaining the
various treatment options available to the patients. The registered nurses also need to explain
the pros and cons of the treatments and then allow the patients giving them the full freedom
to decide what they want to do (Alvarez et al., 2016). Through informed consents, registered
nurses can respect the autonomy and dignity of the patients and these in turn make the
patients feel respected and satisfied with treatment. The patients are seen to feel empowered
and thereby their adherence to the treatments increases (WHO, 2016). This results in quality
care of the patients with positive health outcomes.
Evidence based studies have revealed a number of strategies by which nurses can
include patients in their own care processes. One of them is asking for informed consent.

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Informed consents allow patients to decide the particular treatment procedure that they would
prefer and accordingly they feel empowered by taking decisions about their own health. It
also helps in respecting autonomy and dignity of the patients (Oxelamrk et al., 2018).
Another way of including patients in their own care is to develop therapeutic relationship
with the patients that remain based on mutual trust and respect. The registered nurses should
advise the healthcare team members to develop rapport with the patient and communicate
with compassion and empathy so that the patients feel comfortable and think that healthcare
professionals are genuinely interested in their care (Castro et al., 2016). When the patients
would trust the professionals and feel comfortable in their presence, they would feel
interested in collaborating with the professionals and take decisions about their healthcare
planning. The building up of the trust can make patients more vocal about the needs and
wishes and hence they can engage more successfully (Shortell et al., 2017). Third, the
registered nurses should involve themselves in continuous professional developments so as to
update themselves with new skills and knowledge that can increase patient engagement
successfully (Irizzary et al., 2015).

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Description:
During the time of placement, I got the opportunity to care for an old patient who was
highly vulnerable to fall. He suffered from diabetes and osteoarthritis and had mobility
issues. He used to often forget of his mobility issues and often tried to come out of the bed.
Therefore, he was highly venerable to fall and as bedside nurse, I was delegated the
responsibility of taking care of him and ensuring his safety. However, due to busy shift, I
often had to attend many other patients where I got very less opportunity to communicate
with him. Moreover, I was quite biased and thought that as he was quite old, he would not be
able to take any proper decisions for himself. Therefore, I did not include him in the care
planning process. I even got no scope in asking for informed consent from the patient.
Although, the patient tried to tell me many things, I cut him short telling him that he was
given the right care services and that he would get well. Later, the patient complained to the
registered nurse leader stating that he would not like to take any more medications and that he
is not ready to take any care services from us. The nursing leader understood the entire
situation and I provided patient-centred care to the patient and developed therapeutic
relationship with the patient. The patient ultimately calmed down and became ready to take
medications.
Feelings:
I was quite upset after the incident when I realized that I had completely failed to
provide person centered care to the patient which had affected the patient. I felt guilty of
making the patient depressed and anxious and wanted to correct my approach. Therefore, I
went to the nursing leader to learn about my mistakes. I was feeling less confident after the
incident and thought that I would never be able to become an expert registered nurse.
However, the nurse leader explained to me about how I had not included the patient in his

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care process and this had resulted in negative outcomes. I decided to research on the topic
more so that such incidents do not take place in the future
Evaluation:
The bad part of the incidence was that the patient was not included in the care
planning process. On evaluating my performance, the nurse leader guided me and pointed out
the wrong steps that I had taken. I was biased in my thinking procedure and therefore, I
thought that the old patient has no capability to participate in his care. I did not involve him
in the care process and even did not clarify the treatment procedures that were followed for
him. As I did not make him a participant in his own care, he felt anxious about his health. He
also felt powerless and this affected his self-esteem and self-respect. He felt humiliated and
as a result, he did not show any compliance with the treatment. The leader also discussed that
how my approach could have made me miss vital information, as I did not allow the patient
to discuss vital information that he wanted to reveal. I really felt guilty how I failed in
including the patient in the care and could not provide person centred care.
Analysis:
It has to be mentioned in this context, the nurses, especially the nurse leaders can
impart a huge effect on the patient engagement enhancement of the patients in the care
planning and program development setting. It has been found that patient engagement is
highly facilitated and affected by the nurses and the care providers, through mutual respect
and effective communication. The registered nurses not just help in fostering better
interaction and communication but they can also help in training the bedside nurses and
enrolled nurses establish a mutually respectful relationship with the patients so they can
easily communicate with the patient and foster a higher patient interaction and engagement. I
believe that it is very important to discuss the importance of the patient engagement in the

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care delivery context. Patient engagement has a huge role in ensure patient safety and
addressing the exact care needs of the patient. It has been also found that when the patients
actively interact and participate in the care planning and implementation procedure, the care
needs are more actively recognized and addressed. And therefore, in this context I believe the
patient satisfaction rates are also extremely high. In the event, I interrupted the patient and
did not allow him to say what he wanted to say and in this manner, I had rejected the chance
of knowing vital information from the patient which were important to develop his care plan.
Hence, nurse leaders should guide the healthcare teams about the importance of patient
engagement to ensure safe delivery of services. Secondly, I neither asked for informed
consent and nor communicated with the patient regarding any information about the
treatment. I completely excluded the patient from his own care interventions. He was not at
all aware about what was happening with him. All these raise his anxiety. He also felt
disrespected, as informed consent was not taken. Therefore, in order to become an expert
nurses I have to develop this leadership attribute successfully.
Conclusion:
Similarly, I can infer that patient engagement also has a huge role in accelerating the
process of recovery, by providing a sense of control in the process of disease management
and coping with the disease.
Action plan:
I would attend training sessions where I would be able to develop the
knowledge and skills of applying these strategies. I would be also able to discuss in details
about this attribute with my professors and mentors. Their feedback would help to develop
my skill as well. I would also engage in reflective practices about these attributes so that I can
provide safe and quality care to patients.

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References:
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in patient activation and engagement in self-management: a cross-sectional
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016-1328-3
Barello, S., Triberti, S., Graffigna, G., Libreri, C., Serino, S., Hibbard, J., & Riva, G. (2016).
eHealth for patient engagement: a systematic review. Frontiers in psychology, 6,
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Castro, E. M., Van Regenmortel, T., Vanhaecht, K., Sermeus, W., & Van Hecke, A. (2016).
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Irizarry, T., Shoemake, J., Nilsen, M. L., Czaja, S., Beach, S., & Dabbs, A. D. (2017). Patient
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