Nurses or nursing students have always been taught about fostering and developing a professional relationship with the patients. Of course, there are boundaries that a nurse or nursing student needs to maintain to keep the relationship all professional without crossing between personal and professional boundary. The introductions of Facebook, twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms have made communication made easier to get in touch with anyone. As a nurse or nursing student, there’s always a case where he or she developed a rapport beyond the professional boundaries. A nurse might get emotionally attached to a patient, but it is the nurse’s duty and responsibility to terminate this relationship after taking care of a patient.
Nursing is one of the most intimate health care professions. They are connected to their patients as soon as they are admitted into their care right through until they are discharged into someone else’s care. With this, nurses have a strict professional identity and scope of practice to prevent a nurse from over stepping their professional boundaries. A nurses’ duty of care does go beyond the average healthcare professional but still does not impair the
As a Registered Nurse is a crucial component to ensure that there is effective communication between the nurse and patient. As well as being respectful to the person’s dignity, culture, values, beliefs and rights. This is because everyone is different, and due to this it is important that I am being cautious to each person’s individual needs.
The ‘zone of helpfulness’ describes the centre of a continuum of professional behaviour. This zone is where the majority of interactions between a nurse and a person in their care should occur for effectiveness and the safety of that person. ‘Over involvement’ of a nurse with a person in their care is to the right side of the continuum; this includes boundary crossings, boundary violations and sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with the
Giving myself time to read up on nursing experiences, attending more clinical practice labs, participating and watching these duties in the health care setting will allow me to develop a secure level of confidence the next time that this type of situation may occur. Staying in the room allowed me to experience the feeling of support while looking past social norms and how they are challenged. I met my personal values, and I believe that one should respect another person`s privacy. This understanding allowed me to be there to support the resident during her time of need. In the article `starting out` by Jane Schulz, a nursing student shares her experience of helping her colleague assist an elderly patient with daily care. Observing the compassion and care between nurse and patient from fundamental tasks, she took away a valued lesson of how our support and caring methods affect an individual. My relation to this story allowed me to reflect on the effects my care and supporting actions had on our patient.
There are many ways of forming a relationship and gaining the trust and respect of the patient and I had to work out the different things that make a good therapeutic relationship. According to Hinchliff et al (2003) there are a number of important elements that make a good therapeutic relationship, but it is important to make clear that a therapeutic relationship is a formal relationship between a medical professional and patient. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) maintains that at all times nursing staff must maintain appropriate professional boundaries in the relationships they have with patients and clients.
When the nurse and his patient come together in their human transactions, then there occurs a caring moment or caring occasion (Watson, J., 2014). According to Watson, the outcome of the caring moment depends on the actions of the nurse as well as the patient. For Watson, the caring moment is an opportunity wherein the nurse can establish a transpersonal relationship with the patient (Watson, J., 2014). If executed properly, the caring moment can become a transpersonal experience both for the nurse and the patient. This relationship, according to Watson, contributes to the healing process (Watson, J., 2014).
Student nurses should be following the guidelines of the facility that they are working at for their clinical sites. There are many documented situations in which nursing students violated a patients HIPPA rights and have been dismissed from the nursing program they were attending. This type of behavior puts schools, clinical placements and the relationship of these facilities and institutions at risk. Nursing schools follow QSEN guidelines in teaching their students and have polices regarding social media. School polices should be understood and followed by nursing students. Professors of nursing should also remember to keep relationships with students professional and should not become friends with students on social
Nurse and patient relationships are referred to therapeutic relationships, they are a person-centred approach to care (Berman Et al 2012). For a therapeutic relationship to be effective in meeting the client/patient goals the nurse needs to ‘earn the person’s trust and respect.’ Berman Et al (2012) suggests that the trust and respect of a patient can be earned through ‘sound nursing knowledge and use of effective communication.’ This is reflected in the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s competency standards. These national standards that are regulated and followed by all nurses, they are updated regularly to remain contemporary and
Nurses have a professional responsibility to ensure that safe boundaries are kept in the relationship between patient and Nurse. It is these boundaries that provide the nursing profession with integrity, and according to Baca (2010, pp.195) it is essential these boundaries be maintained because of the difference in power between the nurse and patient. However, boundary violations can occur, when a nurse crosses from the zone of helpfulness to over involved, the ANMC (2011 pp.3) believes that when a violation occurs a nurse is behaving unprofessional manner and misusing their power in the patient nurse relationship. This misuse of power can be categorized into 3 types; boundary crossing, boundary violation and the extreme form of sexual misconduct. Often by mistake a nurse could cross the boundary without thought, a
The building of a positive relationship is described as showing warmth, respect and empathy however to provide effective communication between nurse and patient the nurse needs to be aware of and identify the patient’s physical, social and psychological barriers. A nurse can use these tools to build trust, mutual respect and confidence with the patient as these are needed for
A nurse-patient relationship is the basic requirements in all practice settings. Its usage is to manage communication between an organization and a public while maintaining boundaries in the therapeutic relationship. Based on Peplau’s interpersonal theory, communication takes place in a nurse-client relationship where therapeutic process occurs involving complex factors such as environment, attitudes, practices, and beliefs in the dominant culture (seu.edu, 2015). The actions of each person in a nurse-patient relationship is measured on the collaboration of their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Nurse’s work to attain, maintain, and restore the patient’s health until patient have fulfilled the health care needs. Patient must be guided and provided a well-respected environment until a better health and specific needs are fully considered in the relationship. In this kind of setting, nurse’s must create relationship with patients by communicating receptivity, assimilating the concepts of empathy, trust, genuineness, respect, and confidentiality into their interactions.
The therapeutic nurse-patient relationship is known as a close and consistent connection approaching during patients’
This essay discusses public expectations of nurses, nurse-patient relationships and how to set their guidelines through professional behavior and professional boundaries, what they mean to nurses, and the connection between professional behaviour and professional boundaries.
Nursing is one of the most trusted professions in the community. This means that nurses are trusted to enter into therapeutic relationships that adhere to the concept of patient care physically, mentally and ethically. The therapeutic relationship that is created is built on the professional knowledge and skills of the nurse and the patient trusting in the nurse’s ability to care for them. Professional boundaries are an intricate aspect of a nurse’s daily work. These boundaries are based on trust, respect and the appropriate use of power. Breaches can be classified as boundary crossings, boundary violations or sexual misconduct. Breaches of boundaries lead to violations of a nurse’s professional responsibility. Nurses must maintain
Within nursing, there is a very delicate balance between a nurse and her patient that must be maintained if the patient is to receive the care that he or she is entitled to receive. The patient must feel comfortable trusting his nurse to hear his needs and respond to them appropriately and in order for this to be the case, the nurse must first provide therapeutic communication effective enough to elicit such a response in her patient. There are both verbal and non-verbal components within the nurse-patient relationship. These components greatly influence how a nurse and patient will relate to each other and, ultimately, greatly influence the care that the patient receives.