Strengthening the Nurse-Patient Connection
Advances in health treatment and technology have improved patient outcomes, but this fast-paced and sometimes stressful environment can take a toll on the nurse-patient relationship. Much of nursing now centers more on technology, often in the areas of collecting and monitoring. Sometimes that means that nurses have little time to sit down and just talk and connect with patients.
And yet, hospitalizations are a time when that’s exactly what a patient may crave most. “When you come to a hospital, there’s a lot of fear and uncertainty … and a loss of control,” said Anita McGinn-Natali, co-chair of the Patient and Family Advisory Council at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Now, a new initiative at HUP is turning back the clock, in a sense, to enhance both the patient and nursing experience.
To begin the process, HUP’s Nursing Council researched and then drafted 10 nursing standards that help establish and maintain a therapeutic relationship and brought them to the hospital’s Advisory Council for feedback. The responses they received surprised them. Something as simple as a nurse providing 10 minutes of uninterrupted time with a patient “makes me feel important, secure and cared for….. I feel like I’ve been heard.” Maintaining a professional stance means “Don’t sit on my bed. Don’t call me hon. Don’t talk about me outside of my room.”
“We saw that so much of our work – what we need to accomplish as nurses – isn’t what’s most important to the patient, what they’re struggling with,” said Karen Anderson, MSN.
Based on this feedback, the Nursing Council created a six-hour educational program to help nurses better understand the patient’s perspective. Part of the course involved roll playing with the patient advisors. For example, in one scenario, a patient comes to the unit from the ER. Receiving no clinical information, the nurse has one task: find out what is most important to the patient. “As nurses, we think the hospital admission is what’s important,” said Mauri Sullivan, MSN, “but the patient is telling you that nobody is available to feed her dog and that’s what’s worrying her.”
Other classes examined the best way to handle nurse-to-nurse shift handoffs, which can cause patient anxiety, and the importance of picking up on visual cues, not just verbal. Said one nurse after taking the course, “This experience made me change my practice. Our goal is for patients to feel that they are our number one priority.”
Studies show that a therapeutic relationship helps reduce patients’ anxiety and fear and make them feel more empowered and secure. “When you build a relationship, the patient is more likely to comply with and have a better understanding of what needs to be done,” McGinn said. And this, in turn, leads to better outcomes.
“A patient wants to be heard, be considered and be reassured that you care, that you’re not forgetting me."
Photo caption: Melissa Trolene of Founders 14 takes time to bond with Suzanne Leonard.