Therapeutic Relationship In Nursing

Description

A patient I formed a therapeutic relationship with was a 72-year old man, Robert O’ Brien. Robert was a regular at the hospital. However, when I met him he was uneasy as he was new to my ward. He was familiar with nurses and other members of staff on another ward. Robert had to stay in my ward for two nights. He had difficulty moving his legs, had lots of pressure sores and also suffered from MRSA. He also felt quite lonely since his wife passed away just a year ago. He used to care for her as she suffered with dementia for the 5 years prior to her death. I did the vital signs of all patients on the ward. Last on my list was Robert. On meeting him we began to talk and found common interests like sport and farming. Before I knew

The positive impact of my actions was obvious and valuable for future dealings with patients. According to Kennedy Sheldon (2013) the establishment of trust is the basis of all interpersonal relationships and is extremely significant to the development of the therapeutic relationship in nursing. She also says on emotional, physical and spiritual levels, trust is key in the health care setting due to the vulnerable positions patients find themselves in. Clients need to believe that nurses are honest, knowledgeable, dependable and accepting of the type of person they are. Trust also gives patients more confidence that the nurse will keep their private discussions and their health information private and keep it confidential. If patients believe that their information is confidential they will be more forthcoming and honest in their responses and revelations (Kennedy Sheldon 2013). I think this was very evident in my scenario. Humour is another thing I felt worked very well with Robert as he was quite a bubbly person. Laughter has a unique place in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. As stated in Masatoshi et al. (2010) “Laughter is the most inexpensive and most effective wonder drug. Laughter is a universal medicine”. Human health has benefited for a long time due to humour and laughter. Some of the benefits attributed to laughter include enhanced endocrinological and immunological responses and increased pain tolerance (Masatoshi et al. 2010). Common interests are another factor which helped our relationship. We tend to be drawn to people we have common interests with such as a hobby, sense of humour and the same cultural background (Robinson et al. 2015). Empathy is the last feature I used and it is what I think gained the trust of Robert. Empathy is “educated compassion or the intellectual