Professional distance means the space a professional must keep between him/her and the person they are working with. By keeping this space, a professional can fulfil their professional and personal obligations without invading their client’s space and vice versa. I also believe that “professional distance” pertains to keeping focus on the job while emphasizing that problems that arise are driven only by conflicts about a patient’s care not by personal conflicts. (Manos and Braun 2006) defined difficult patient as one whose behavior is an obstacle to the provision of good nursing care. Nurses always come in contact with these type of patients on a regular basic. We have to professionally handle them in order to have a smooth shift. At the same …show more content…
For example, I had a patient who came to my facility with a broken hip. After I got my shift report and went through the patient’s chart, I found out he was actually a really difficult patient. He was constantly angry, dissatisfied with care and extremely difficult to deal with. The moment I entered the room, I was prepared physically and emotionally to give the best care possible to this patient. As always, the very first step of Nursing care begins when we enter the patient’s room for assessment. The way we introduce ourselves or talk to patients the first time determines the way the entire relationship will unfold. That speaks volumes when it comes to Nurse-patient relationship. Nurse assesses patient’s and his or her own understanding of what is happening Gorman (2008). I do realize that the more we interact with patients, keep our differences or problems behind us, the more the patient becomes more open to discussion about patients’ needs and wants. It was the way I spoke to her, being ready to listen to her, responding to her, being present, not rushing etc. That made a difference. As mentioned by Gorman (2008), nurse responds accurately and with empathy to patient. Therefore, all nursing activities such as medication administration, wound dressing changes went smoothly. Therefore, this Patient was satisfied, became less anxious and more