Essay on Therapeutic Communication's Role in Patient Wellbeing

This essay examines the crucial role of therapeutic communication in healthcare, particularly within the nurse-patient relationship. It defines therapeutic communication as a vital interaction aimed at improving patients' emotional and physical well-being, emphasizing the use of various techniques to facilitate information sharing and support. The essay highlights the importance of a strong nurse-patient relationship, built on effective communication and care, as a cornerstone of successful patient outcomes. It discusses how healthcare professionals use therapeutic communication strategies to provide information, correct misunderstandings, and encourage patients to express their feelings and needs. The paper also emphasizes the importance of holistic care and the use of techniques like active listening, clarification, and paraphrasing to enhance the therapeutic relationship. Furthermore, the essay underscores the significance of respecting cultural differences and maintaining professional boundaries to ensure effective communication and improve patient care.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF THERAPEUTIC RELATION IN CARE OF PATIENT
IMPORTANCE OF THERAPEUTIC RELATION IN CARE OF PATIENT
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

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IMPORTANCE OF THERAPEUTIC RELATION IN CARE OF PATIENT
Introduction
The aim of the essay is to explore the importance of therapeutic communication in caring
for client and patients. The term Therapeutic Communication is of two different meaning.
Therapeutic is the helping relationship while communication is social interaction between people
through which they can convey their message and understand their thoughts. Therefore, the
connection between the client and health care professional with good quality of communication
is known as therapeutic relationship (Stevenson, 2014). Generally, information is exchanged
among people and through which strong relationship can be built. The main purpose of the essay
is to highlight the effectiveness of therapeutic relationship in giving care and concern to the
patient by the mean of good quality of communication by health care professional. They use
different strategies to inspire the patient so that they can express their feeling and thoughts and
that give acceptance and respect.
Nursing is the profession which involve care to the patient as the primary role by the
mean of harmonious relationship. Therapeutic communication occurs between the client or
patient and health care provider to help them with their problem and make them learn about the
changes and face hurdle to one’s self-realization. According to the Ware (2017) the main center
of therapeutic relationship are the patients and their families, they rely on the care provider
during their illness. Rolvsjord (2016) recognize that the care provider need to be give respect,
sympathy, lenience, self-awareness, good communication and additionally need to have
confidence in their skill. They maintain a safe atmosphere for the patient and themselves to
work. As the outcome of the therapeutic relationship, patient display trust and self-reliance in the
care provider, understand their illness and get motivated to be well. In most of the cases it is not

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likely that nurse will care for only single patient, thus, each patient tends to have their own
relationship with the care provider. According to Farrelly (2015) recognize from his study the
role of nurse or care provider in therapeutic relationship mentioning that each individual
relationship is distant and different and nurse need to identify it and adapt themselves to
ensemble patient’s holistic need.
Richardson, Percy and Hughes (2015) in their study has reflected that therapeutic
relationship does not exist automatically but is needed to be developed by the care provider. It is
assuming that care provider has clinical knowledge and personal experience to develop
successful therapeutic relationship. From the study of Rasheed (2015) it can be said that there are
many features of care that is used to build the relationship which includes communication,
specific care, create safe environment, employment of evidence based care, self-awareness and
raise of rights and parity. Efficient care provider puts all these aspect of care and develop the
therapeutic relationship.
Therapeutic relationship is the important tool in providing holistic care to the patient and
it is the part of assessment and plan for care made as the center part of the relationship.
According to Pazargadi et al. (2015) suggested that holistic care are the ideas that is helpful to
treat the person in whole rather than their sign and symptoms of illness. In order to execute such
relationship, the most important factor that need to be consider is effective communication. The
patient and their family are great need to cope up with the disease and the remedy for this to
construct environment of effective communication in which nurse listen to the issue of patient
and concern of their families. Nurse allow them to feel that they are in caring condition and
encourage them to express their feeling and ideas. Nurse show respect to their view and type of
care they wish. From the study of Zugai, Stein-Parbury and Roche (2015) it was recognized that

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IMPORTANCE OF THERAPEUTIC RELATION IN CARE OF PATIENT
the two most important requirement for therapeutic communication is to preserve the self-respect
of both patient and care providers. Therefore, the extend of this relationship can be measured by
the ability of the client and health care professional to effectively communicate with each other.
The concept of Therapeutic communication was explained by the Weber and Farrell
(2016) where the author said that in order to establish effective nurse-patient relationship, nurse
need to first introduce themselves in friendly gesture to build trust. It is also important for care
provider to listen to the patient issue and problems and what kind of care they wish. The most
crucial thing is to maintain the privacy of the patient when giving care and the primary need of
them need to be taken care which might include relieving pain or any sort of discomfort they
experience during the course of their treatment. According to Yeh (2017) in his study has said
that for care provider to develop therapeutic relationship, it is crucial to respect the cultural
difference and need to preserve professional boundaries.
According to Farrelly (2015) recognize from his study the role of nurse or care provider
in therapeutic relationship mentioning that each individual relationship is distant and different
and nurse need to identify it and adapt themselves to ensemble patient’s holistic need. Looking
into the role of care provider, they usually take a management role in caring of the patient with
vulnerable illness and such condition which disallow them from being independent or self-
directed. Edvardsson, Watt and Pearce (2017) said that caring and concept of nursing are two
inseparable things. The relationship between nurse and patient is kind of therapeutic interaction
where critical thinking about the patient situation and providing evidence based care is the
keystone to the care. Nurse recognize, acknowledge and accept the thought of patient which was
exchanged during communication and help the patient to realize that care provider are interested
and respectful toward them (Marie & Jaroslav, 2016).

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IMPORTANCE OF THERAPEUTIC RELATION IN CARE OF PATIENT
Therapeutic relationship technique which includes active listening, focusing,
clarification, reflecting, paraphrasing, silence and providing lead. Silence is the mean by which
nurse can give effective therapeutic by providing ample time to the patient to discuss
their feeling. Focusing on the patient by the care provider is to allow them to give effective care.
Clarification is need to be done by the care provider about the data of patient with any error to
avoid any fault in treatment process. The behavior of the patient reflects the status of his mind set
and nurse can evaluate it by active listening to the patient inquiry and doubts (Campbell, 2018).
It is also important for the nurse to paraphrase the statement given by the patient in order to
ensure and clarify their concern. After all such process, care provider takes the role of
management and allow the patient to continue the discussion about the care plan. Nurse provides
the education to the families and the patient themselves regarding the management of disease or
illness and various way to cope. Therefore, as part of therapeutic relationship, the nurse need to
summarize the main point stated to make the patient as well as their family’s acquainted with the
care plan (Behenck et al., 2017).
Lastly, from the above discussion it can be stated that therapeutic relationship develops as
health professional, care for the patient, assess them, examine and implement the care plan. It is
important as it gives rights and need to the patient. The best way to treat and give care to the
patient underlies on the concept of holistic approach and therapeutic relationship is the center of
this care. It is crucial to include critical thinking and evidence based care to the patient as
essential factor of therapeutic relationship. Therefore, care provider can effectively employ their
course of action for developing therapeutic relationship.

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IMPORTANCE OF THERAPEUTIC RELATION IN CARE OF PATIENT
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