Comprehensive Report: Person-Centered Care in Healthcare Settings

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of person-centered care, exploring its principles, benefits, and potential risks within healthcare settings, particularly for individuals with dementia. The introduction highlights the philosophical roots of person-centered care, emphasizing the importance of individualized service delivery and patient empowerment. The discussion section delves into the positive impacts of this approach, such as improved patient outcomes, effective communication, and staff satisfaction, while also addressing challenges related to patient safety, autonomy, and potential for abuse. The report examines the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach and the need for staff training to address the specific needs of residents. It also acknowledges the risks associated with person-centered care, including issues related to safety, mobility, overcrowding, and lack of privacy. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the benefits of person-centered planning in improving patient psychological status and reducing agitation, while also emphasizing the need to mitigate the associated risks. The report references various studies and publications to support its findings, providing a thorough overview of the subject.

person-centered care
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Person-centered care 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
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Introduction
Prior to the inception of the person-centered care, the similar principles were seen to be
crystallized in the 'Framework for Accomplishment' given by John O'Brien and Connie Lyle
O'Brien. In this framework, they listed major five areas which were critical in shaping the quality
life of the people and asserted all the services must be judged by extent to which the people are
able to share ordinary places, develop various abilities, make choices, and treated with respect
and has valued social role and how they grow in relationships. The care is titled as ‘person-
centered’ due to the idea behind its development and sharing a belief that services towards work
must be performed in a ‘service-centered' manner. The prime ideology behind the person-centred
planning is to set up services in response to the various issues like devaluation, social exclusion,
disempowerment but these are also seen to make the situation worse for individuals albeit
unintentionally.
Discussion
According to Harkness J (2005), the person-centered planning is seen to impact the health
outcomes of the patients positively. A review of various studies regarding the professionals who
deliver person-centered care has found out that it helps in various aspects like reduction of the
emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction along with increased sense of accomplishment (Lutz BJ,
Bowers BJ). The person –centered care helps in promoting effective communication. This
effective communication is vital for improving the quality of the people suffering from dementia.
Therefore, the efforts must be made by the staff so as to enhance the communication, make the
patients listen to the staff and in turn understanding the patients. As the behavior and emotional
states of the people suffering from dementia are the only forms of communication where they
can reflect their feelings, person-centered care, along with a skilled staff helps in identifying the
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potential triggers towards the behavioral as well as emotional symptoms like depression and
agitation of the resident. The staff of the person-centered care are trained and therefore they are
aware of the various communications needs of the individual resident, the family is unable to do
that. Mead N, Bower P., (2000) stated that the person-centered care utilizes a multi-disciplinary
approach implementing communication strategies which are impossible without these cares.
Additionally, the person-centered approach helps in entitling the residents towards full access to
the other services by maintaining a balance between the health and social care services. Every
resident gets a full assessment of his need including diagnosis and access for the person's
assessed needs like nutrition, health care, and physiotherapy, etc. along with this; the mental
needs are also acknowledged by using appropriate services. Only the person-centered care is able
to adopt a suitable pain management technique. As stated by Stevenson ACT (2002) the person-
centered approach never fails to deliver right advocacy services. In short, the person-centered
care is able to make the services accessible in a very flexible and easy to navigate manner. The
person-centered care helps in maintaining a relationship between the service users and the staff
and further helps them to empower them. Therefore a meaning is provided to every event. The
person-centered care helps in ensuring a good understanding of the understanding and the
person-centered care helps in maintaining a perfect balance between the calming services and the
stimulating activities. A person-centered care helps the staff to recognize the style of
participation of an individual via the observation and good assessment. Person-centered care is a
perfect and only measure of the satisfaction and well-being of the individual. (Nolan M, 2004)
But at the same time, the people with dementia are at high risk due to the impairment of their
neurological system. Furthermore, the environment of the person-centered care also adds up to
these risk factors. The following factors are responsible for the risks associated with the person-
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centered care (Supporting people with dementia and their carers in health and social care,
2006): Safety and mobility issues, abuse, community hostility, overcrowding, lack of privacy,
conflicts between staff and carers, etc. Firstly, as mentioned in the study by Brownie, S., &
Nancarrow, S. (2013), there is a problem related towards the maintenance of the safety as well as
ensuring the autonomy to the resident along with high comfort. Due to different residents having
different needs, it becomes challenging to satisfy their needs and autonomy. Furthermore, with
the changing needs of the person, the factors are bound to change. There might be risk towards
safety and mobility leading to the risk of falls and even fall-related injuries. The physical
restraints are usually mistaken with ensuring safety. However, they end up harming the residents.
Additionally, the people with dementia are seen to be at higher risk of various types of abuse like
sexual, verbal, financial, physical, psychological abuse along with neglect owing to progressive
loss of capacity, increasing dependence on others and even communication difficulties. This can
be due to the disconnection between the educations of providing personal care along with what
was expected from them. The staff is seen to have the lake of training and information regarding
dementia and are asked to perform authorities and responsibilities that are beyond their
capability. Therefore, sometimes the staff is unintentionally being abusive or neglected towards
the people with dementia (deGruy, F. V., & Etz, R. S., 2010). Secondly, the people with
dementia are seen to be segregated, marginalized, excluded and even ignored in an environment
away from their family and the people are seen to face various other difficulties with the less
responsive environment of the person-centered care. Moreover, the overcrowding is one of the
major risk associated with the people with dementia in the person-centered care. Due to
overcrowding the person-centered care the staff and authorities are not able to focus on the
abilities and needs of all the residents leading to ineffective care. With various other residents are
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healthcare providers have the shortage of staff and other facilities leading to worsened care of the
residents and increased dissatisfaction. Likewise, the need for companionship and physical
intimacy are not supported with dignity and therefore the people with dementia are seen to
suffer. The staff fails to recognize their intimacy and sexuality and are therefore not provided
with adequate privacy. Furthermore, the couple needs are not accommodated in the person-
centered care.
Conclusion
The person-centered planning is seen to be associated with various positive influences as it
improves the psychological status of the residents and helps in lowering feeling of helplessness
and the boredom rates further leading to the reduced agitation level in the people with dementia.
However, at the same time, the residents present in the person-centered care are also seen to be
prone to higher risk of falls, lack of privacy, substance abuse and other factors.
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References
 Brownie, S., & Nancarrow, S. (2013). Effects of person-centered care on residents and
staff in aged-care facilities: a systematic review. Clinical interventions in Aging, 8, 1.
 deGruy, F. V., & Etz, R. S. (2010). Attending to the whole person in the patient-centered
medical home: The case for incorporating mental healthcare, substance abuse care, and
health behavior change. Families, Systems, & Health, 28(4), 298.
 Ford P, McCormack B. Keeping the person in the center of nursing. Nurs Stand
2000;14(46):40-44.
 Harkness J. What is patient-centred health care? London: International Alliance of
Patients’ Organizations, 2005.
 Lutz BJ, Bowers BJ. Patient-centred care: understanding its interpretation and
implementation in health care. Schol Inq Nurs Pract 2000;14(2):165-183.
 Mead N, Bower P. Patient-centredness: a conceptual framework and review of the
empirical literature. Soc Sci Med 2000;51(7):1087-1110.
 Nolan M, Davies S, Brown J, Keady J, Nolan J. Beyond person-centred care: a new
vision for gerontological nursing. J Clin Nurs 2004;13(3a):45-53.
 Nolan M. Successful ageing: keeping the ‘person’ in person-centred care. Brit J Nurs
2001;10(7):450- 454.
 Stevenson ACT. Compassion and patient centred care. Aust Fam Physician
2002;31(12):1103-1106.
 Supporting people with dementia and their carers in health and social care. (2006) (1st
ed.). UK. Retrieved from http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/misc/dementia/dementia-
guideline.pdf?res=true
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