At some point, I was caring for a patient that had soiled her diapers. The patient did not want any male changing her, but there were no female attendants that would change her immediately. I explained the situation to the patient, but she reiterated that she would wait until a female caregiver was available. I respected her wishes since she must have reasons for this preference. This was a demonstration of person-centered care. It is essential to have effective communication between patients and nurses for the successful result of individualized nursing care (Wills, 2015). As a result, nurses ought to help patients by demonstrating aspects of sincerity, kindness, and courtesy.

Therapeutic communication focuses on advancing the patient’s emotional and physical well-being. The interaction involved between the patient and health care provider is meant to boost the patient’s safety, trust, and comfort (Tishby & Wiseman, 2018).  Attitudes and personal values are likely to impact therapeutic relationships. These are things that have been developing throughout an individual’s life; hence they are likely to stick with them.  The problem normally comes in when caregivers attempt to impose their own ideas on clients. This will leave patients feeling that their needs are not being taken into consideration, and neither will they feel empowered.

Among the ways of promoting therapeutic relationships in the presence of diversity, is to educate nurses on the importance of understanding their own attitudes and personal values. In this light, they should now be prepared to adopt the industry’s professional values, and this will deter them from imposing their own values and attitudes on patients (Tishby & Wiseman, 2018).

Effective communication and collaboration among healthcare providers are essential as it increases awareness and improves decision making. One way of doing this is by communicating and sharing information using SBAR; situation, background, assessment, recommendation. This communication model allows for a focused way of setting expectations that can easily be communicated among members.

References

American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice. (3rded.). Silver Springs, MD: Author.
Potter, P.A., Perry, A.G., Stockert, P., & Hall, A. (2017). Fundamentals of nursing. (9thed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.

Tishby, O., & Wiseman, H. (2018). Developing the therapeutic relationship. American Psychological Association.

Wills, J. (2015). Fundamentals of health promotion for nurses (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.