Professional values

Professional values effect behaviour and therefore people lacking in values may also lack direction and critical thinking skills (Schmidt, 2016).). During my 6 weeks in hospital, I came across many cases that require such professional values to be hold. For example, with working with elderly patients I noticed that patient choices are often in the first place. Nurses are always asking patient about their feelings in hospital as well as get their approval before starting the care plan provided. In this scenario, a patient must be advised on available healing choices and the facts about their condition as well as any underlying repercussions. After that, the patient has a right to decide whether they go through with a procedure or not. This professional value is called autonomy which has a great impact in building trust between nurse and patient relationship as patient in this case tends to feel respected( ).According to ( ) The up growth of autonomy as a legal, and moral conception has deeply impacted nursing ethics. It has altered the centre of decision-making from the nurse to the patient and reoriented the entire therapeutic relationship between nurse and patient toward a relationship more open, more trusted, and more respectful of the dignity of the person of the patient.

The therapeutic relationship includes three major areas of care: physical, emotional and psychological care ( ). These domains might be more profoundly experienced by nursing staff on hospital units because of their long exposure working with elderly and their deep communications and interactions with such patients, comparing with other member of staff who might have less individual interactions with patients( ). Within my placement in elderly rehabilitation ward ,I observed many elderly patients are transitioning from a chronic or critical care to community care witch demand for an assistant in doing that. Thus, nursing staff are exposed to patients for long periods of time and require to think of the whole aspects of care with a view to accomplish successful rehabilitation( ).Subsequently, the therapeutic relationship in this scenario includes setting up the abilities of patient, working with elderly patients to fulfil set goals and making sure that emotional and psychological sides of chronic diseases can be managed efficiently in the long run( ).

An empathic therapeutic relationship can be developed by many different ways including particular training skills (Webster, 2010). The best example for this is exchanging stories with patient. This training focuses on the significant role of open-ended questions and body language by which patients should be asked by nurses specifically about their feelings and emotions during clinical interaction within the ambit of empathy( Stickley and Freshwater, 2006). It is regarded that asking patients about their health and cases has a great impact to let them feel relaxed and more comfortable whilst learning about their feelings and thoughts. In nursing profession, a nurse should benefit from this interaction with patient and keep the concentration of conversation on these feelings instead of referring the focus back to clinical issues by not offering an effective listening approach ( Brunero et al., 2010 ). Despite the fact that empathy is an inborn quality, with some people obtain whilst others do not, it is vital to represent empathy in clinical care and should be carried out through verbal, non-verbal and emotional communication skills (Welch, 2005). These methods can be used by a nurse in order to assess the patient depending on their responses. During my placement, I found these methods are useful to complete some papers in patient’s file, for instance nursing admission and assessment and management and prevention of delirium chart which require talking to patient to complete.

In my personal experience in working in rehabilitation ward, I was delighted because I experienced many opportunities to interact and communicate with patient where they talked frankly without keeping their thoughts and feelings hidden about their worries and emotional needs with reference to the rehabilitation process. These interactions led me to be sympathetic to patients as well as feel sorry for them. This annoyance might be ascribed to two main reasons. Firstly, the position was an emotional, secondly in general patients ‘expectations were higher than actuality. Therefore, the experience shows some factors that impact a therapeutic relationship.