Person Centred Care: A Healthcare Approach for Patient Satisfaction

This article discusses the concepts of person-centered care in depth and the outcomes it has on the healthcare professionals and that of the patients. It also highlights the benefits of person centered care for both patients and healthcare professionals. The article emphasizes the importance of creating a work culture that supports person centered care and provides learning opportunities through effective practice, leadership, and a collaborative working environment.

Running head: PERSON CENTRED CARE
PERSON CENTRED CARE
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Person centered care can be defined as the healthcare approach to be taken by nursing
professionals that ensure patients to be the central part of the decision making of their own lives
and the treatment interventions and care plans. Researchers are of the opinion that person
centered care is the procedure of thinking, planning and doing things which visualize service
users utilizing the health and social services as the equal partners for effective planning,
developing and monitoring care so that it can be made sure that the care meets their requirements
(Brooker and Latham 2015). It is not only about caring people by providing them according to
their needs or giving them enough information to reduce their anxiety and developing their
health literacy. This approach of caring is more about considering the service user’s desires,
family situations, values, social lifestyles at the same time of seeing them as individuals and
working together for developing appropriate solution. For this, the nursing professionals have to
be not only compassionate but also be equally empathetic where they have to develop their
outlook from the point of view of the patients and be respectful of the patients (Eaton, Roberts
and Turner 2015). This assignment is mainly based discussing the concepts of person-centered
care in depth and the outcomes it has on the healthcare professionals and that of the patients.
In the initial days, treatment plans were fixed and the same interventions were provided
to all patients with the same disorder without analyzing the respective requirements and needs of
each of the patient, their background of living, the social determinants of health, their
psychological condition and many others. Therefore, the care that brought out successful health
outcome for one proved to be unsuccessful to another patient with the same disorder (Ross, Todd
and Clarke 2015). Therefore after many years of research, the stalwarts are of the opinion that
person centered care is the best approach that nursing professionals need to take to bring out the
maximum amount of positive outcome not only on the physical health but also on the mental

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health of the patient. Therefore, in case of person-centered care, the services which are provided
need to be more flexible for meeting the needs of the people in ways that are best for them. The
nursing professionals may achieve this by working in partnership with the patient or with both
the patient and his families (Fors et al. 2015). In this approach, the multi-disciplinary team may
also engage in a collaborative work output for critical patient cases by involving in effective
discussion themselves or that with patient and families to reach to s solution as per the needs and
wishes of the patient and his family members.
A number of important aspects remain associated with the person-centered care that the
healthcare professionals need to follow to ensure quality care that increases satisfaction of the
patients. The professionals should respect the values of the service users and keep the people at
the centre of care. The professionals need to take into account the preferences and expressed
needs of the patients. Researchers are of the opinion that when nursing professionals respect the
autonomy and dignity of the patients, it results in development of the bonds between them which
has positive outcomes on the health of the patient (Ulin et al. 2016). They feel that their
decisions are cared for and the feel empowered. This also results in increasing their compliance
with the treatment.
The nursing professionals should also work with the patients making sure that there is
effective communication, information as well as education. Better the development of
communication among the members, there will be growth in trust and mutual respect for each
other. Professionals make sure that the service users are physically comfortable as well as safe
and provide emotional support in ways by which the patients can overcome any form of anxiety
and depression (Burton et al. 2017). When their close members are ill, the family members tend
to go through a very difficult phase where they feel helpless and guilty about the situation of the

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patient. In such a situation, if information is not shared with them from time to time, they feel
more anxious that affect their physical health. Therefore, friends and family members also need
to be included in planning the care interventions for the patient discussing in details the
advantages and disadvantages associated with them and the ways which can be adapted for better
health outcome for the patients (Sjogren et al. 2015). These make them feel empowered and help
them to overcome anxiety and stress. The professionals also need to make sure that there is
continuity between and within the services and they should make sure that the service users have
proper access to care according to their needs.
Providing person centered care keeps patients at the center of decision-making and this
remains associated with a large number of benefits. The first benefit is that this approach results
in the improvement of the quality of the services available according to that of the needs of the
patients (Rokstad et al. 2015). It also helps people getting the care they need when they actually
require it. This procedure also helps in making the people more active on looking after
themselves. They also help in reduction of some of the pressure on the health and social services.
In the different developed as well as the developing nations, there has been an increasing demand
for the different types of health services but the resources required for providing such services
have become limited.
Nowadays, every citizen is living longer after the advancements in the medical fields as
the life expectancy of the people has increased (Hanson et al. 2016). Different studies have
shown that person centered care can help in the improvement of the health of the people and
thereby help in the suction of the burden on the different health services of the nation. Therefore,
the policies of the governments of the different nations are providing more significance on
strengthening the voice of the service users. It has become very important for the present day

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healthcare systems to move away from their paternalistic model where the professionals are
mainly seen to be responsible for “doing things to” the people. Therefore, most healthcare
centers are keeping person centered care as one of the most important of the core principles.
Person centered care is seen to have big impact on the quality of care. It helps in
improving the quality of care of the patient. This form of approach is seen to improve the
experience of care felt by the people and this helps them feel more excited. It helps in providing
encouragement to the people so that they can lead healthier lifestyle so that they can exercise or
eat healthily. This form of approach is also seen to encourage people in ways by which they feel
more involved in the decision making about their care and this make them get services and
support that matches with the appropriateness for their needs and therefore success rate of this
form of care approach is quite high (Fors et al. 2016).
Moreover, this form of care is also seen to have positive outcomes not only on the blood
pressure of the patients but also on the mental health of the patients. They feel that their
suggestions are respected and taken care by the professionals. It has been seen that as older
patients age, they start feeling powerless as their physical fitness and capability reduces, they
have impaired vision and mobility, they suffer from various diseases, suffer from speech issues
and many others. In such situation, they feel helpless and get depressed and anxious. In such
situations, they become sensitive and so the professionals need to be very careful and
communicate with them by which they feel empowered. Such approach of care is therefore seen
to be highly successful in such situations and make patients feel respected and cared for
(Johnston et al. 2015).

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Person centered care is also seen to cause reduction in the frequency of the service users
using the services and this may in turn cause reduction in the overall cost of care. The evidence
on this aspect s quite low and more researches are being carried on to find more evidences on
this. This form of care is also seen to be resulting in improvement about how confident and
satisfied the professionals themselves feel about the acre that is provided to them.
Several studies have been found where the scientists worked on the outcomes of person
centered care on the professionals who adopted them. It was found that such form of care helped
in increasing job satisfaction (Gabrielsson et al. 2015). Moreover, it also showed that such form
of acre results in reduced emotional exhaustion on the nursing professionals. It also resulted in
the increase of the sense of accomplishment among the different professionals. The professionals
have given different interview answers that give us an insight about how this method helps in
increasing job satisfaction (Mccormack and McCance 2016).
The professionals suggest that in this approach, the patients and family members become
equal partners in decision-making and therefore, it reduces the burden of the professionals to be
entirely responsible for the decisions taken on behalf of the patients and family members. As the
patients and family members provide suggestions, it becomes easier for the nurses to select the
correct interventions among the different forms of intervention that could be provided to patient.
This reduces the burden to some extent from the professionals. The chances of legal obligations
are also quite less as the patients and family members undertake the final decisions about the life
and health of the patient. Again, as this form of care helps in developing therapeutic relationship
with the patients, there is a development of mutual trust and respect and development of such a
scenario helps in providing care much easily and smoothly. This is mainly because that patient

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remain compliant and trust the professionals thereby completing the tasks as per asked by the
professionals (Surr et al. 2016).
Hence, it becomes much simpler for the professionals to complete their duties and
responsibilities without any form of aggression. This ultimately helps in ensuring higher level of
job satisfaction and lower levels of burning out. Therefore, person centered care is helpful in
bringing out the best outcomes for the nursing staffs as well and thereby help in job satisfaction.
Moreover, this form of care meets the requirements and needs of the patient in the first instance
itself and chances for readmission or further support of the professionals are reduced. This
reduces mental and physical stress from staffs as well.
Researchers are of the opinion that although healthcare professionals are showing
preferences for person centered care, their actions in real are not following the patterns of person
centered care as they think. The aspects of the clinical care that the professionals perceive to
being of person centered practice is often the person centered moments which the professionals
practice occasionally and perhaps with certain specific service users who are seen to experience
person centered moments (De Silva et al. 2014).
The person-centered care does not primarily keep its main focus on the person centered
patterns of communication and interaction respectively but takes into account the individual
service users as well as the underlying somatic procedures and the cultural embedding of the
meaning of the processes (Gondek et al. 2017). In the present generation, person centered care
has been seen to become a buzzword that every healthcare professionals are utilizing but it is
really not care that whether all the professionals are talking about the same concept and what
exactly does this word “person centered care” means to each of them. Researchers are therefore

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of the opinion that sustaining of the person centered care and modifying and altering from on
and off person centered moments to that of the consistent approach of person centered care
requires more than a motivated healthcare professional (Kadri et al. 2018). Studies also suggest
that being aware of what exactly composes and constitutes of the genuine person centered care
orientation or not knowing the various differences between person centered care and person
centered moments prevent the healthcare professionals from effective recognition of the
contextual or the systemic barriers. This would consequently result in hindering effective
engagement of the professionals in person-centered practice.
Researchers are of the opinion that contextual factors play an important role about how
person centered care is carried on in the different healthcare practices. In order t embed person-
centered care in the healthcare practices, it requires a sustained commitment from not only the
individual healthcare professionals but also at the levels of the organization. Researchers are of
the opinion that a work culture that helps in supporting person centered care creates awareness
of the possibilities and even the challenges for practicing person centered care. This, as a result,
facilitates effective overcoming of the challenges to person-centered care (Mullen et al. 2017).
Healthcare professionals who have support from their organizations are seen to have more
opportunities for practicing in a person-centered pattern, rather than performing person centered
moments. For this, organizations need to embed person-centered care effectively in practice.
They can utilize practice development where the healthcare professionals and teams are
supported in becoming aware of their context of their practice and thereby realize specific
features of their context may prevent them from practicing in the person centered way (Olsson et
al. 2016).

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In order to instill person-centered care, it becomes important for the organization for
creating the work culture that provides learning opportunities through effective practice,
leadership that supports person centered care and a collaborative working environment where
person centered care is not an individual option but a team effort (Sharp et al. 2016).
From the above discussion, it becomes quite clear that person centered approach is the
best form of care that ensures patient satisfaction. In this approach, the professionals need to
maintain the individuality of the patients and see them as experts in the field of their own care.
Here the professionals share their power and responsibility with the patients and take up a
holistic approach for effective assessment of the needs and care of the people. The professionals
need to make sure to make the patients and their families the center of decision-making. The
professionals need to be aware of the whole experiences of the people and thereby take part in
promoting coordination and continuity of the services. This ensures maintenance of autonomy
and dignity of the patients and they are kept in the central focus for decision-making. This not
only makes the patients feel satisfied and their compliance with the treatment increases having
positive outcomes on their health. Moreover, it is also seen that the professionals also get high
job satisfaction and reduced burnouts and emotional stress from applying this approach in their
care. However, in many of the cases, it is seen that although professionals feel that they are
providing person centered care but they actually end up in providing person centered moments
which do not have the true essence of the care. Therefore, it becomes extremely important for the
organizations to ensure a learning culture that would help them to practice the true aspects of the
culture so that patient’s satisfaction is reached and excessive flow of resources on improper care
practices can be prevented.

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