Enhancing Patient Safety Through Therapeutic Relationships in Nursing

This nursing essay explores the critical role of therapeutic relationships in ensuring patient safety and improving healthcare outcomes. The narrative recounts a nurse's experience with a patient who self-medicated based on internet information, highlighting the dangers of misinformation and the importance of open communication. It emphasizes that establishing trust and understanding through therapeutic relationships can help patients disclose vital information, prevent medical errors, and enhance overall care. The essay underscores the necessity for nurses to not only gather medical information but also to educate patients about reliable sources and the benefits of transparent communication for effective treatment.

Nursing assignment
Nursing assignment
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Nursing assignment
Module 3
Just as I was about to retire to bed, a call came through, the nurse on the other end
stated that an old woman has just been brought to the emergency section with a severe heart
condition and I was supposed to report immediately. Upon reaching the hospital and taking
all the precautionary measures, I was able to stabilize the patient in no time with the help of
the team. However, I could not leave as I had an urge of conversing with the patient and
know why she had to wait until the condition escalated to such levels. However, my wish was
not to be granted at that moment as the patient rested and so I was to conduct the
conversation the following day.
The day came and the patient highlighted that most of the time she used to conduct
research on the internet on how to manage her condition. Despite the answer, I was curious
why the information from the internet had failed to save her this time, but probing for the
information could only go so far until she seemed upset. The patient spent the day normally
well to a point I thought she can be discharged. However, I felt that there was a lot to be done
since I had not established a therapeutic relationship. According to (Mok, & Chiu, 2014)), a
therapeutic relationship involves establishing mutual trust and respect between the patient
and the nurse.
Therapeutic relationship is attained by being sensitive to others and providing
assistance to the patient’s spiritual, emotional and physical needs using the necessary skills
and knowledge (Gastmans, 2018). Luckily, with such an understanding, I managed to engage
the patient and in no time, I managed to make her talk. During our conversation, I was able to
discover that she was indeed using the internet to obtain information in which she used to
manage her condition. At that particular day, she had taken Angiotensin-converting enzyme
(ACE) inhibitors in large quantities, which ended up escalating her condition.

Nursing assignment
The revelation shattered my heart as I realized more and more patients are now
declaring themselves doctors by obtaining information from the internet. Such a tragedy is
growing daily and most of them fail to administer the correct treatment or dosage thus
worsening their medical cases.
It is overwhelming to see thatmany people are perishing becauseof obtaining wrong
information from the internet. However, I have learned that, despite the availability of health
care services, most patients are turning to the internet for medical assistance. The worst part
of this is that they fail to disclose all the information relating to what they had taken due to
lack of proper therapeutic relationship. This has taught me that apart from gathering
information from the patient, I should also go an extra mile and establish a therapeutic
relationship. Moreover, I will be sure to inform the patient on the benefits of being open in an
effort to find the solution and emphasize that not all information in the internet is reliable.

Nursing assignment
References
Gastmans, C. (2018). Interpersonal relations in nursing: a philosophical‐ethical analysis of
the work of Hildegard E. Peplau. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 28(6), 1312-1319.
Mok, E., & Chiu, P. C. (2014).Nurse–patient relationships in palliative care. Journal of advanced
Nursing, 48(5), 475-483.