Enhancing the Patient Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Enhancing the Patient Experience - Essay Example Due to space imitation, the paper will focus only on the challenges that were experienced during the case study discussed, and not on the treatment. Different studies have revealed that person-centred care not only gives psychological satisfaction to patients, but also helps the nurses to gain psychological satisfaction in their job, as person-centred care not only makes easy their ‘job’, but also provides certain sense of spiritual meaning and depth to the process of caring. The Case Study The case study included in this paper is of a teenage female client who was recommended by her school for counseling and therapy. The physical examination of the client had revealed that the client was severely overweight and was suffering from obesity related problems. Her academic performance had gone down drastically in last six months, and she was becoming emotionally and psychologically distant from her peers and teachers. However, the decision to send her for counseling was take n when her parents approached the school regarding her performance and expressed worries over her behaviour problems. The method used to understand the client was personal interview. Six sessions of interview were conducted with the client. It was found that she was suffering from low self-esteem and insecurity. ... The client’s eating pattern was related to the emotional insecurity and unfulfilled needs. Hence, it was very necessary to adopt a person-centred approach to gain her confidence and faith. Person-centred approach is one of the most effective approaches in care. According to Ford and McCormack (2000), â€Å"in order to provide person-centred care, practitioners must acquire knowledge about the person which allows them to provide care and services that are compatible with individual’s values and which are, as such, highly valued† (Clarke, Hanson and Ross 2003, p.697). However, understanding the values of a person is not an easy task. There were many challenges that were experienced during the journey of the treatment process. Interestingly, the challenges started right from the beginning of the treatment as the first challenge was faced when I had to understand the core values of my client. Building mutual trust Communication between nurse and patient is an importa nt aspect of a successful treatment. However, communication is possible only when the patient trusts the nurse and believes that the details of his personal life will remain confidential. Hence, in order to encourage my client to open up emotionally, it was necessary for me to gain her trust. It was important to assure her that I was not going to judge her in any way, but understood her point of view completely. It has been observed that due to differing interpretation of illness and related conditions, the mutual trust between the nurse and the patient, which is necessary for good communication, cannot be developed (Sartain, Clarke and Heyman 2000, p. 913). Mutual trust can be enhanced by accessing and resolving the difference in patient’s and service provider’s interpretation of the medical