Trust In Nursing Profession Essay

The Nursing Profession: The Value of Trust What gives life to a relationship? A relationship needs many values to flourish healthily. Although when it comes to relationships, everyone has their values. Nevertheless, a core value that must be present in all types of relationships is trust. Similarly to how a tree can not grow without its roots, a relationship can not grow without trust. Examining the perspective of nursing, trust is considered the foundational value of the profession due to its significance in establishing therapeutic nurse-client relationships. This paper will thoroughly examine the role of trust and aims to identify its significance and influence in the nursing profession.

How is trust identified within the nursing profession?

To begin, trust is significant when it comes to building relationships with clients and promoting positive health outcomes. Rutherford (2015) exemplifies that trust is the enhancer of a client’s experience (as cited in Naylor et al., 2013). Enhancing a client’s experience and involvement in their care will increase the client’s commitment and therefore promote positive health outcomes. When building a therapeutic nurse-client relationship, trust must first be established to deepen client communication and the connection between the nurse and the client. The built communication and connection enable the nurse and client to work together therapeutically and produce desirable outcomes aligned with the focus of the relationship. Trust can be built through verbal communication such as speaking and nonverbal communication including eye contact. Additionally, Dalton et al. (2020) notes that empathic listening promotes trust and increases the use of respectful communication with the client. Likewise, empathic listening promotes patient-centeredness and consequently increases the client’s trust in the nurse as the client feels heard and understood. Although a nurse may have multiple goals while interacting with clients, they prioritize the process of trust-building as foundational to the relationship with their client (Dalton et al., 2020). Overall, gaining a

In regards to this, advocacy and confidentiality have deemed themselves to be key in therapeutic nurse-client relationships. Through advocacy, the nurse gains the client’s trust when they support and recommend on behalf of the client while seeking what they believe the client would want (Rutherford, 2015). As the nurse acts on the action that would best benefit and promote the well-being of the client, the client’s trust in the nurse continues to rise. Ethically, nurses are required to maintain confidentiality with their clients. Although maintaining confidentiality is an ethical and legal responsibility, it promotes a therapeutic nurse-client relationship where the nurse is considered to be trustworthy. As the nurse is perceived to be trustworthy, clients may feel safe and trusting towards the nurse as they know their information will be kept highly confidential. As a result, advocation and maintaining confidentiality increase the trust a client has in their nurse through the expressed attribute of trustworthiness. From the client's perspective, the aspect of vulnerability increases trust among nurses. Rutherford (2015) explains that the vulnerable position clients are in when receiving care from nurses causes them to put their trust in the nurse. This sense of vulnerability can arise when nurses expose areas of the body to assess a possible concern. In a situation such as