Person Centered Care

Person centered care is a holistic approach to nursing that maximizes on the patients’ needs and preferences to achieve quality and effective care. It is governed by eight basic principles that include respect to individual, coordination and integration, information and education, physical support and access to care.

Person cantered care
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Person cantered care
Introduction
Person centered care is the form of nursing care approach where nurses focus on holistic
approach to the patient rather than focusing on diagnosis and the symptoms being experienced by
the patient. It also seeks to ensure that the patient needs and choices are regarded and respected.
Draper and Tetley in 2013 defined person centered care as a nursing approach that focus on the
personal needs, wants, desires and goals of the patient (Buetow 2016). In other words, this
should form the basis for care to the patient. This also implies that the healthcare professionals
should overlook their priorities at the expense of the patient’s choices.
Discussion
Person centered care is governed by different principles. Respect for patients is the first principle
of person centered care. Respect is defined as a feeling towards an individual elicited by their
situation or abilities. In person centered care, the individual in question is the patient. In the
nursing profession, there are certain ethics or principles that nurses ought to stick to. One of the
ethical principle is autonomy (Coulourides Kogan, Wilber, & Mosqueda 2015). This implies that
in patient centered care, the self-rules applies. The autonomy of the patients should be respected
at all costs. The nurse is therefore supposed to respect any decision made by the patient
regarding their own lives. If for example the patient feels that a certain nursing intervention is
not conducive for him, then the nurse has the obligation to terminate it. The principle of respect
in person centered care is more or less the same as respect for human dignity whereby nurses
have no moral capacity to interfere with decisions made by patients be it adults or children
(Dewi, Evans, Bradley, & Ullrich 2013). The nurse should therefore be keen to identify the

needs or desires of the patient receiving person centered care and stick to his/her personal
wishes. By so doing, the nurse will be utilizing the principle of respect.
Coordination and integration of care is another principle of person centered care. In person
centered care, coordination and integration of care is defined as the deliberate efforts to organize
patient care activities and sharing information among all individuals involved in patient care so
as to attain safe and effective care (Fagerström 2017). What this principle means is that patient
needs should be known in advance and communicated to the right people such as family
members and healthcare providers. It is this information that forms the basis of providing safe
and effective care .An example of the principle of coordination and integration in action is where
nurses interrogates the patients on what should be done. The nurse can also coordinate with a
family member who might be the mother, brother or father to the patient in providing care. The
objective of this principle is to attain patient needs in providing high quality and high value care.
Recent studies indicate two ways in which coordinated care can be achieved as either through
using specific care coordination activities or using diverse approaches that can bolster health care
delivery. Examples of care coordination initiatives proposed in the studies include assessing
patients’ needs and goals and linking to community resources. Broad care coordination activities
on the other hand include care management and teamwork. The principle of coordination and
integration in person centered care ensures that the patient’s preferences are met in delivering
high and quality care and nurses should therefore ensure that they incorporate this principle
throughout.
Patient education and information as a principle of person centered care is very important. While
providing care to the patients, studies recommend that it is the duty of the nurse to educate and
provide necessary information to the patient (Hewitt-Taylor 2015). The patient has the right to

information such as why a certain protocol or nursing intervention is being conducted on him or
her. This according to studies, reduce anxiety among the patients and enables the patient to also
participate in care. Patient education is known to be the best tool that assist patients make
informed decisions. It is therefore necessary that nurses provide knowledge to the patient about
their care and potential treatment options so that they can identify how they wish to or not to
receive their healthcare.
Physical comfort is an important principle of person centered care. According to a recent survey,
physical experiences by patients has an impact on their well-being. Some of the most important
areas under physical experiences of the patient include pain management. If a pain is not
managed in a good way, it is likely to negatively affect the well-being of the patient. During
patient centered care, the nurse has the obligation to manage pain in a more professional manner.
If a patient experiences much pain, it is unlikely that he/she will be willing to be part of care.
Other important factors in the physical environment are assisting the patient with daily activities
and making the environment comfortable (McShane & Mitchell 2015). The aim of this principle
is to ensure that the patient and the family members are as comfortable as possible and this will
motivate their participation in health care. Eventually, the patient will receive safe and quality
healthcare.
Involvement of the family and friends in care. This principle basically outlines the position or the
role of close family members and friends in person cantered care. During care, it is
recommended that accommodation facilities should be provided to the family members and the
friends. The healthcare providers should also ensure that they involve the family as well as close
family members in the decision making process. Studies recommend that nurses should consult

widely before they initiate care. The nurses should also recognize the needs of the family
members.
Continuity to transition and access to care are other principles of person cantered care. In access
to care, studies recommend that patients should access healthcare whenever they are in need. The
nurse or rather the hospital administration should ensure that they organize for transportation of
the patient incase he/she can’t move like for the case of the foot injury in the case study (Riddett
2017). The nurses should also be available in case of appointments. The principle of continuity
and transition on the other hand focus on care after discharge. The nurses should therefore
provide a detailed discharge plan in person centred care.
How nurses can partner with consumers to improve safety and quality of their care.
In order to improve the safety and quality of their care, studies propose partnership between
nurses and consumers. Consumers in this case are the patients. Studies recommend nurse-patient
partnership as it has been associated with the best patient outcomes (Sharma, Bamford, &
Dodman 2015). In the same studies, it is recommended that the partnerships can be attained
through nurse providing information, educating patients and finally encouraging them. The other
way to achieve partnership is through creating a trusting and professional relationship. This is
mostly evidenced by the observable nursing work (Wolf et al 2017). Effective partnerships can
also be obtained through patient education. Nurses-consumer partnerships have shown to be very
effective in improving both the safety and quality of care. Nurses should therefore strive to
ensure that they create and sustain such partnerships.
Another way through which nurses can partner with consumer is through using the teach back
method when formulating a discharge plan. A discharge plan is basically a protocol or

instructions what the patient will be supposed to do once outside the hospital. This includes
issues such as monitoring of vital signs. The nurse is therefore supposed to partner with the
patient by asking him/her some of his/her weakness and inquiring about the environment of the
patient. This will be in return used by the nurse to formulate an inclusive discharge plan. Teach
back method is the best as proposed by several studies. It involves educating the patient then
asking them to repeat whatever was taught. This can be also be used as a method of evaluating
whatever was educated. It is the role of any nurse to create partnerships with their consumers so
as to improve their well-being.
Conclusion
Person centered care is a holistic approach to nursing that maximizes on the patients’ needs and
preferences to achieve quality and effective care. It is governed by eight basic principles that
include respect to individual, coordination and integration, information and education, physical
support and access to care. Since studies link nurse-patient partnership to quality and effective
care, both the nurse and patient should work hand in hand to create and sustain the partnership.

References
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