Therapeutic Relationships: Schizophrenia Patient Care in Nursing

This essay examines the critical importance of therapeutic relationships in nursing care for patients with schizophrenia. It emphasizes the need for nurses to build trust and confidence with their patients to facilitate effective treatment, as schizophrenia can significantly impact a person's ability to socialize and interact. The paper defines therapeutic relationships as a cornerstone of treatment, encompassing personal attributes, clinical techniques, and theoretical understandings. It explores the benefits of these relationships for both nurses and patients, including improved communication, conflict resolution, and culturally sensitive care. The essay also discusses various methods for establishing therapeutic relationships, such as professional conduct, genuineness, self-awareness, empathy, and positive regard. By focusing on these elements, nurses can create a supportive environment and enhance patient outcomes. The essay concludes by highlighting the positive impact of therapeutic relationships in delivering quality treatment for individuals with schizophrenia.

Therapeutic Relationships when dealing with Patients With Schizophrenia
NURSES THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIPS WITH PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Therapeutic Relationships when dealing with Patients With Schizophrenia 1
Why Nurses Need to Develop Therapeutic Relationships with Patients who have
Schizophrenia
Nurses dealing with patients with schizophrenia need to develop therapeutic relationships
for them to win the trust and confidence of their clients. Lysaker, Pattison, Leonhardt, Phelps,
and Vohs, (2018) define schizophrenia as a long-term mental disorder that leads to breakdown in
thoughts, emotions, and behavior. The primary setback and impact of this condition to the patient
is that it makes it impossible for the person to socialize or interact with others. The caregiver
dealing with a patient suffering from this condition has to start with building therapeutic
relationship. Oliveira (2016) defines therapeutic relationship as the initial relationship between
the client and the caregiver hope to engage with each other throughout the method of treatment.
This is essentially important for nurses dealing with people suffering from schizophrenia,
considering that the disorder affects their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This paper
discusses why nurses need to build therapeutic relationships with patients suffering from
Schizophrenia and how these relationships can be established.
Therapeutic relationships, also called alliance relationships, are important not only to the
caregiver, but also to the patient that is to undergo treatment. According to Hazelton and
Swinson (2018), therapeutic relationships encompass personal attributes, clinical techniques, and
theoretical understandings to build and promote mutual understandings between the caregiver
and the patient undergoing treatment. This makes this relationship the cornerstone of the
treatment as explained in Palmer and Halpin (2018). Therapeutic relationship is also called a
one-to-one relationship between the nurse and the patient suffering from schizophrenia. The first
implication and importance of building this relationship is that it will benefit both the caregiver
and the patient in their future interactions. For instance, Hazelton and Swinson explain that

Therapeutic Relationships when dealing with Patients With Schizophrenia 2
nurses dealing with patients suffering from schizophrenia will need to interview the patient to
understand what is causing them patient and pain. These questions cannot be asked when there is
no therapeutic relationship between the nurse and the client. The nurse has to win the trust and
confidence of the client for them to be open and share private information.
Another reason for one-to-one relationship is to make sure that there is room for conflict
resolution in case it occurs during the treatment process. According to Hazeltn and Swinson
(2018), nurses deal with patients from different cultural values. It is important that the caregiver
builds a therapeutic relationship to understand the cultural values of the patient and use that
opportunity for extending care and treatment. There will be a moment when the caregiver will
need to understand the cultural values of the patient with the goal of avoiding conflicts in case he
makes a mistake during the interactive sessions (Shattock, Berry, & Degnan, 2018). Once the
relationship has been established, it becomes easy for the caregiver to communicate and address
the patient in empathy. It also makes the patient to understand that there is someone that cares
and one that is interested in helping him overcome the condition. Additionally, early intervention
in establishing therapeutic relationships prepares the two to know how they will interact and help
the patient during the future interactions.
Nurses Develop Therapeutic Relationships with Patients who have Schizophrenia
Scholars have proposed different methods of establishing therapeutic relationships with
patients suffering from schizophrenia. Hazelton and Swinson (2018) recommend professional
relationships which should be formal. Formal professional relationships occur within a specified
time and within the given sessions. This starts with identification as discussed in Ruggero,
Pietro, Rosa, Gaetano, and Francesco (2016). Identification involves the introduction of the

Therapeutic Relationships when dealing with Patients With Schizophrenia 3
caregiver to the patient and explaining one’s profession and what one expects to achieve from
the therapeutic relationship.
Another method of developing the professional therapeutic relationship is to maintain a
level of genuineness and self-awareness. The caregiver has to be aware of the feelings and how
they occur in the patient. Genuineness is the personal presentation of the nurse in terms of
communication and sharing of roles and responsibilities without hiding any information.
Considering that the future sessions will mainly thrive on trust and confidence, the nurse will
become genuine by disclosing any relevant information that could help win trust and confidence
of the person suffering from schizophrenia. The nurse has to understand how to handle the
emotions of the patient and respond accordingly. This is a professional approach of getting the
patient engaged in the discussion and future interactions in the treatment process.
The nurse can also establish professional therapeutic relationship through empathy.
Johansen, Iversen, Melle, and Hestad (2013) define empathy as the accurate understanding of the
client’s feelings and focusing on those feelings and emotions to help the patient recover from the
treatment. When applying empathy, the caregiver has to make sure that he avoids getting the
client emotional (Westermann, Cavelti, Heibach, & Caspar, 2015). The caregiver has to be wise
in choice of words to use and how to present the ideas and information to the patient to avoid
conflicts. Getting the patient emotional may interfere with the recovery process, especially
considering that people with schizophrenia experience emotional problems. There is also a need
for positive regard towards the patient. Hazelton and Swinson (2018) explain that the caregiver
has to hold the patient with schizophrenia with respect and dignity that the person deserves. This
can be done through shunning of negative attitudes, avoiding negative judgments, being
attentive, and maintaining professional distances when handling the patient. The fact that the

Therapeutic Relationships when dealing with Patients With Schizophrenia 4
person is experiencing depression or trauma does not mean that they have lost their sense of
dignity. In fact, the role of the caregiver is to help the patient feel that they can be strong enough
to lead normal lives and achieve their goals.
In conclusion, dealing with patients with schizophrenia can be a positive experience for a
professional nurse. One has to understand why there is need to develop therapeutic relationship
and how it can be developed. The nurse has to start with understanding the patient and
developing positive attitude during the first sessions. These positive attitudes have to continue
throughout as they are the cornerstone for the successful delivery of care to the patient.
Professionalism and holding the patient with dignity could help the caregiver deliver quality
treatment.

Therapeutic Relationships when dealing with Patients With Schizophrenia 5
References
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