Therapeutic Relationship Analysis

Nursing care is constantly changing and evolving, partnership between a nurse and the patient is essential for a therapeutic relationship and the building of trust. This paper will be discussing the importance of partnership and a therapeutic relationship in current nursing care between nurses and people who have had strokes. Within this, it will be focussing on how communication is central and nursing attributes such as empathy, are essential to building a trusting therapeutic relationship. As well as looking at rehabilitation and how specialized stroke care is closely related to patient outcomes being significantly improved (Dimitrios, 2016). These three main aspects are crucial to positive patient outcomes as they will define the type of
Empathy is extremely important to incorporate into practice and can significantly impact the patients experience and rehabilitation. For people who have had strokes, they most likely go through a very vulnerable and uncertain period of time. For nurses it is important to show empathy in these situations in order to make the patients feel more at ease within their situation. (Flemmer, 2014). According to Hunt, Denieffe and Gooney (2017), compassion fatigue or burnout is a term used to describe a relationship that lacks empathy. Building a partnership between the nurses and the person who has had a stroke without empathy can be extremely tiring and draining for both people. It creates an unhappy environment, cognitive empathy involves the self-regulation of the emotions that are felt (Hunt, Denieffe and Gooney, 2017). For nurses cognitive empathy is crucial, they may see many negative things or have bad news for the person who has had a stroke and it is very possible that this may personally affect them. That is why it is so important for them to regulate these emotions so they do not alarm or upset the person who has had a stroke. It is essential that the person who has had a stroke and is going through the stages of rehabilitation feels positive and hopeful that they will be able to recover somewhat. According to Crotty and Doody (2015), reading the patient’s body language or even facial expression can give away a significant amount of how they are feeling. It is the nurse’s job to notice this and act to meet the patients’ needs, also to help them make the best possible decisions for their patients. For someone who has had a stroke, their brain function is effected, how severely depends on the location and size of the stroke but there is usually some level of impairment. Empathy allows the nurse to be able to understand the emotions and thoughts that the patient may be