Nursing: Therapeutic And Professional Relationships In Nursing

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Nurses use critical thinking to inform their clinical practice to be able to provide the best patient care. Additionally, they include this process with other healthcare professionals and patients in therapeutic and professional relationships to inform their practice in a patient-centred model (Ingham-Broomfield 2018, p. 193; Riet 2018, p. 499). Therapeutic and professional relationships in nursing are imperative, with them come boundaries between what is considered professional and personal in the healthcare setting (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia 2010). Firstly, therapeutic relationships in nursing enable healthcare professionals to engage with the patient on a limited personal level that helps to support mental state, shows kindness …show more content…

Pain scores are an important tool in assessing pain but are subjective due individual perception and interpretation (Wikström et al. 2014, p. 53). Pain in one patient compared to another of the same individualities, same surgery, same method, same medications can have completely different pain scores; this can be due to anxiety, pain tolerance levels, opioid tolerance and biological differentiations (Tharakan & Faber 2015, p. 181). The outlined evidence demonstrates the importance of listening to the patient and systematically assessing their pain perception, to determine the best treatment in consultation with the patient and other healthcare professionals (Cyna & Tan 2013, pp. 785-6). Others commonly involved in patient care are family members and significant others. This is due to research that shows these relationships can assist in a faster recovery for patients, due to positive influences, improving overall well-being and health outcomes (Clay & Parsh 2016). In special circumstances, patients family members or significant others may be permitted to enter recovery to sit beside the patient; at this point, the role of the nurse should be to build a therapeutic and professional relationship to support the family member and reassure them not to worry (Wicker 2015, p.

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