Relationship of Nurse and Patient Assessment 2022

Assessment
Topic: Relationship of Nurse and the Patient
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Relationship of Nurse and Patient 2
Criteria 1
Topic- “Relationship of Nurse and Patients”. The topic addresses the patient safety AND a
healthy workplace.
Criteria 2
A therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is helping in nature based on mutual respect and trust,
infusing hope and faith and being sensitive to the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of the
patients (Health Workforce Australia, 2014). Effective relationship ensures psychosocial and
physical safety while providing optimal patient care. Effective communication (verbal and non
verbal) is an essential part of nursing care enabling the equal partnership of the patient in getting
well (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2004).
Nurse Patient Relationship as a problem
Nurse patient relationship is often influenced by the work environment factors like high stress,
increased workload, extended working hours and mandatory overtime which leads to fatigue
(Richard and Tabatha, 2010).
Maintaining effective Nurse Patient Relationship is a problem because workplace and
environmental issues result into high rate of medical errors and preventable adverse events.
Higher staff turnover rate results into poor quality of care, shortage of staff and low morale of the
staff which adversely affects the nurse patient relationship and patient safety (Nejati, Shepley
and Rodiek, 2016). Fatigue results into impaired physical and mental health which adversely
affects the patient safety and treatment outcomes. The nurses spend most of the time in
performing housekeeping work, transporting the patients and supplying the medical equipments.
These activities interrupt their primary care duties. It consistently threatens the patient safety.
Therefore, it is important to address these latent conditions at the work environment of nurses as
they affect the relationships at the care setting and the productivity
What is currently being done about it?

Relationship of Nurse and Patient 3
To facilitate right nurse patient relationship and effective work environment for nurses, the IOM
recommended major changes in the way healthcare is structured. The changes were proposed in
Workforce deployment, management and leadership, organizational cultures and work processes.
The American Association for Critical Care Nurses (AACCN) established certain standards to
sustain the professional relationships like True collaboration, effective communication and
decision making, right staffing, reliable leadership and recognition of staff values (Hughes,
2008). The six major aims of healthcare as illustrated by the healthcare organizations like IOM,
CMS, The Joint Commission and AHRQ are: patient centered care, effective, equitable, timely,
efficient and safe care (Nejati et al., 2016). Emphasis is being given on Patient centered care,
evidence based practice and safety culture. These factors contribute in positive nurse patient
relationship.
Why it is a significant issue to Contemporary Nursing Practice?
Maintaining and developing effective Nurse patient relationship is a significant issue to the
contemporary nursing practice, as the nurses are primarily accountable for setting the purpose
and structure of relationship. Unsuccessful relationship of nurse and Patients may directly lead to
stressful working environment, as well as physical and mental health of the Nurse. The nurses
should use patient cantered care to satisfy the requirements of the patients and thus to develop
the relationship. The nurses have to work under professional, legal, ethical and personal
confinements to respect the unique attributes of every patient to understand their response to
care.
How effective leadership may mitigate the problem?
I think that effective leadership can ensure standard operating procedures, fair organization
climate, equal distribution of resources and adequate training of staff. Through transformative
leadership, the change can be taken as an opportunity to adapt, learn and improve. Strong
leadership provides strategic decision making authority to implement the teamwork, empowering
and engaging the employees towards improvements in all the spheres. The encouragement may
be used as a leadership technique to transform the perceptions about safety and developing
relationship.