Nurse–patient relationship: A dichotomy of expectations (original) (raw)

Meanings of Descriptions of the Status of Nursing Care Provided by a Psychiatric Nurse: Based on Phenomenological Interpretation

International Journal of Nursing & Clinical Practices, 2015

The present study aimed to clarify the meaning of the context an individual lives in on the basis of the direct relationships between individuals who emerge from a situation of psychiatric nursing care. The subject of the present study is the description of nursing practice in the words of a psychiatric nurse. It was interpreted on the basis of the phenomenological method. According to the interpretation, the patient often said "I do not know why, but I feel bad. " The nurse advised her to think why she felt bad. Then, the nurse tried to encourage her by saying "You have the courage to say that you feel bad. " However, it was not appropriate for the nurse to say that because saying that the patient feels bad means it is hard to live in her personal relationships with others. In other words, the patient wants to feel comfortable in her relationships with others. Therefore, the nurse should accept the fact that the patient has been in a situation in which she feels bad. As shown in the preceding paragraphs, phenomenological interpretation helps in accepting the situation as it is and adopting practical approaches.

Reconceptualizing the Nurse-Patient Relationship

Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 2003

To review assumptions inherent in the nurse-patient relationship as historically described and practiced, and to propose an alternate framework for nurse-patient interaction that is congruent with current health care environments. Organizing Constructs: The theory of human relatedness and the nurse-patient relationship. Methods: Analysis of assumptions inherent in the current theoretical and empirical literature on nurse-patient relationships and evidence from observation of nurses engaged in practice. Proposal and discussion of the theory of human relatedness as an alternative model for conceptualizing nurse-patient relationships. Conclusions: The theory of human relatedness framework provides new insights and opportunities for assessment, intervention, and research within the context of nurse-patient relationships.

Ways of understanding nursing in psychiatric inpatient care – A phenomenographic study

Journal of Nursing Management, 2019

Nursing in psychiatric care has been accused of a lack of autonomy and becoming instrumental by acquiescing to the medical model, mostly focusing on delivering treatments prescribed by physicians (Bladon, 2017; Lakeman & Molloy, 2017). Specifically, nursing has been described as having a marginalized status (Holmberg, Caro, & Sobis, 2018), unclear role definition (Delaney & Johnson, 2014) and being invisible (Harrison, Hauck, & Ashby, 2017), all of which has led to difficulties in implementation of theories and models (Barker, 2001; Bladon, 2017). Furthermore, psychiatric inpatient care is often confusing from the patients' perspective, creating difficulties to

The quality of psychiatric nurses' interactions with patients: an observational study

The behaviour of nursing staff in each ward of a psychiatric hospital was observed at 5-min intervals for between 7 and 10 h per day for 10 days. The nurses' behaviour was equally divided between interacting with patients, interacting with staff, solitary task oriented behaviour and other behaviours. There was less staff-patient interaction in the acute ward than in the long-term and psychogeriatric wards and senior nurses interacted less with patients and engaged in more solitary task oriented behaviour. Of the interactions with patients, almost 25% were rated as positive and only 0.3% negative. In the long-term wards almost 47% of the interactions were positive.

Nurses respond to patients’ psychosocial needs by dealing, ducking, diverting and deferring: an observational study of a hospice ward

BMC Nursing, 2015

Background: Psychosocial support is considered a central component of nursing care but it remains unclear as to exactly how this is implemented in practice. The aim of this study was to provide a descriptive exploration of how psychosocial needs (PNs) of patients in a hospice ward are expressed and met, in order to develop an understanding of the provision of psychosocial support in practice. Methods: An embedded mixed-methods study was conducted in one hospice ward. Data collection included observations of patients' expressions of PNs and nurses' responses to those expressed PNs, shift handovers and multidisciplinary meetings. Interviews about the observed care were conducted with the patients and nurses and nursing documentation pertaining to psychosocial care was collated. Descriptive statistical techniques were applied to quantitative data in order to explore and support the qualitative observational, interview and documentary data. Results: During the 8-month period of observation, 227 encounters within 38 episodes of care were observed among 38 nurses and 47 patients. Within these encounters, 330 PNs were expressed. Nurses were observed immediately responding to expressed PNs in one of four ways: dealing (44.2 %), deferring (14.8 %), diverting (10.3 %) and ducking (30.7 %). However, it is rare that one type of PN was clearly expressed on its own: many were expressed at the same time and usually while the patient was interacting with the nurse for another reason, thus making the provision of psychosocial support challenging. The nurses' response patterns varied little according to type of need. Conclusions: The provision of psychosocial support is very complex and PNs are not always easily recognised. This study has allowed an exploration of the actual PNs of patients in a hospice setting, the way in which they were expressed, and how nurses responded to them. The nurses faced the challenge of responding to PNs whilst carrying out the other duties of their shift, and the fact that nurses can provide psychosocial support as an inherent component of practice was verified. The data included in this paper, and the discussions around the observed care, provides nurses everywhere with an example against which to compare their own practice.