Building Trust In The Nurse-Patient Therapeutic Relationship

I believe enabling trust within a clinical setting is extremely important. I found an article which spoke about the importance in trust within a clinical placement of an aged care facility. Trust can be built when nurses meet the relational needs of older people (Muntinga et al. 2016). This statement explains that it is possible for older patients to form a trusting relationship with future nurses such as ourselves, even if we are of different nationality and especially age, we just need to understand what it is the patient wants from us. If we take the time to explore the older patient’s values and life stories, we can develop a strong focus on the needs of the elderly (Muntinga et al. 2016). It is also important for nurses to careful to ensure a patient, in this case and older patient knows and understand the difference between what that patience really wants and want the nurse wants the patient to want (Atkins et al. 2017)Building Trust In The Nurse-Patient Therapeutic Relationship.

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When working as a nurse, it is important to form relationships with patients that are built on trust, because without trust the patients care and recovery may be affected (Atkins, De Lacey, Ripperger & Britton, 2017, p. 201). Whether or a not a patient decides to share information with nurses and other health professionals is directly related to their trust towards that person (Atkins, De Lacey, Ripperger & Britton, 2017, p. 203). Trust is formed upon entering into a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship, usually during the introductory phase when the nurse is learning about the patient, and to trust another person involves risk, and with the outcome of an individual’s health in the hands of a medical professional it can be easy to form mistrust (Levett-Jones, 2018, p. 500). It is not expected as a nurse to do everything that the patient is asking of, but through compassion, knowledge, integrity and professional self-respect this trust can easily be formed (Atkins, De Lacey, Ripperger & Britton, 2017, p. 219). As a nurse, it is in the duty of care to provide health care that is directly related to the patient’s condition, and if there is treatment or therapies recommended that they believe will cause harm to the patient then the nurse may refuse to comply.

Reflecting on the above statement i acme to an understanding that trust is the most basic relation between a nurse and a patient in a therapeutic relationship as patients are vulnerable to the nurses, they can’t do things which they can do before and now they need help of the nurse or any other health practitioner (Atkins,et.al. 2017). Nurses actively preserve the dignity of the patient and respect their vulnerability and powerlessness in their care to establish a sense of trust in patients that their physical, psychological, emotional, social and cultural well-being will be protected when receiving care. According to Atkins et al. (2017) trust can be categorised by four essential features which are an element of uncertainty as you never know what the trusted person will do, an element of risk and vulnerability as it makes us vulnerable to another person’s competence and goodwill, an element of discretionary judgement as it gives nurse to heal and harm the patient, and asymmetry of power in trusting relationship as the power imbalance in short term allows the patient to have more control over their lives in the long term.