Reflection On Therapeutic Interaction - Essay Example

Reflection On Therapeutic Interaction My first placement I was in a surgical ward. During my starting days on the ward, I had a difficult time with patients as they required more help with their activities of living, such as movements when changing places and their cleanliness needs. This ward did use a model that I had learnt earlier on in my course work. This helped me as my work was to provide a frame of the scheme for nurses to scheme their way of doing things and personalize the interventions that were related to how a patient would rehabilitate. I had interacted with a number of patients before but in a different context. All patients had been admitted for many different reasons. This involved me in having different kinds of responsibilities from caring for the patients, admitting them and ensuring their general care up to when they were discharged. I was a very concerned when I first started in the surgical ward because the staff that was already there seemed to be more professional. Moreover, I did not know how to behave and act myself in front of the patients. Thirdly, I had no idea on what I was going to answer queries from patients regarding their health in front of the professional staff, but I settled in and understood the routine of the ward, and it was extremely an easy thing to do. The nurse and patient relationship is to be viewed as a significant therapeutic tool for quick recovery of patients. I discovered that effective communication was the key to this nurse patient relationship to be an effective therapeutic tool. The suggested forms of communications that I learnt were; asking questions and allowing patients to express themselves and their feelings, or reassuring patients by means of touch this will be a significant increase in patient satisfaction, patient care and well being. Nurses are the central figure in the well being and care of patients as they provide much of the psychological demand to the patient. For this to happen, nurses need to have excellent interpersonal skills to be able to create a therapeutic relationship with patients and relate in a good way with family of the patient and other nurses. Communication covers a large of things. This includes silence, enthusiasm and touch. Touch can imply different things and is therefore, referred to as a silent language of non verbal behavior. It is the most affectionate way of remitting warmth. An example where touch worked was when patients were anxious or impatient I would give them a warm hug or hold their hands and talk to them. Not many patients who are usually comfortable with touch, and this made me learn to respect boundaries when dealing with every patient. I could also use silence as a communication skill. This could give the patient and I time to reflect on future occurrences in the patient's care. When offering therapeutic therapy nurses are required to maintain professionalism and boundaries when dealing with patients. This is because while interacting with these patients nurses like other people can become emotionally attached to patients, and this is not a good show of the therapeutic relationship. I had to be highly confidential with the patient as some of them could give extremely vulnerable information due to their health situation. In order for this therapy to work well on the patient then there needs to be trust and confidentiality. This would work whenever a patient is extremely vulnerable, and it will help improve his/her health if the trust is there. Whenever I was needed somewhere, and I was with a patient, I would assure the patient that I would come back and if I was tied down I would send a colleague to assure the patient that I was going to come back. This would keep the patients’ trust in me and would enable the therapy to continue working. Empathy is one trait that a nurse is required to have in order to use therapeutic therapy in treating his/her patients. A nurse should show empathy by reflecting back to the ordeals, and past experiences he/she has had to motivate a patient that his/her situation was going to get better. This will enable patients to identify with a nurse better. I used this trait to encourage and motivate my patients in this ward and they liked to identify with me throughout my placement in the ward. The listening skills of a nurse should be exceptionally agreeable. A good therapeutic nurse should be patient enough to listen to patients’ worries and concerns. This should be displayed in a natural way such that the patient should open up to his/her worries, and this will help in treating/taking care of patients. I used to listen carefully to a patient speak and open out his/her worries then using the information given to me by the patient to give him/her the advice that best fits him/her for recovery. In Therapeutic therapy nurses should know how to respect different backgrounds of their patients. These backgrounds may be the patients’ culture, religion, race, gender, age, sexuality or other personal beliefs. A nurse can know about these background issues through talking to the patient and knowing these issues will help in the treatment of patients. Different religions have their own treatment beliefs, and they can only be treated/ medicated as their beliefs specify. Other patients may have distinct dietary requirements, and this can be known through proper communication from the nurse patient relationship. An excellent example is that while, on placement, I met this Muslim patient and he could not eat meat that was prepared without his consent since they have their own way of preparing it (known as halal). Therapeutic therapy should always treat patients with dignity. Even during interaction many patients require to be treated with respect and dignity this enhances/boosts the patients’ ego and hence is a quick lead to recovery. I learnt that treating patients with respect and dignity was paramount such that even despite my age they still respected me, and they felt that they would confide in me when they needed to talk to someone. This, in turn, increased my chances of giving them advice on how to go improve their health situation. This gave me another lesson that when talking to patients privately I had to close the curtains and talk in exceedingly low tones this showed how much I respected the patients privacy and in turn it increased the patients trust in me. Professional, interpersonal skills are as a result of the experiences a person gains from the course work and the working environment in general. These are the key communication skills that a nurse has to learn in order to perform therapeutic therapy and help patients. The nurse has to have these key skills to be able to communicate well with not only the patients but the relatives of the patients, the family members of the nurse and fellow colleagues. I learnt that, through the use of these interpersonal skills, I was able to assist quite a number of patients recover remarkably quickly than the doctors had anticipated. I gained extremely useful experience and have developed the confidence that I needed to work in this type of environment. I managed to treat the patients equally, attended to their personal needs and treated them with dignity. This made me know that I also could help the society make a positive change. Therapeutic interaction is a positive way to treating patients who are vulnerable. This kind of interaction makes patients recover quickly and it increases their hopes of living for a positive purpose in the world. Through the use, of proper interpersonal skills of a nurse then therapeutic interaction is one of the best methods of treating patients. There is no evidence that can discourage the use of therapeutic interaction. My experience throughout this placement will obviously be applied in the next placement. I will certainly improve on my interpersonal communication skills; I will have a boosted confidence level that I have acquired from this placement. This will enable me to serve and treat my patients well. I learnt that in order to apply therapeutic therapy one needs to possess the following therapeutic skills; Empathy, listening and attending, silence, professionalism, one needs to be genuine, and caring and above all one needs to know how to read physical and behavioral techniques and. In my next placement, I will be more prepared. References Anne Aiyegbusi, J. C.-M. (2009). Therapeutic Relationships with Offenders: An Introduction to the Psychodynamics of Forensic Mental Health Nursing. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Annie Mitchell, M. A. (1998). The therapeutic relationship in complementary health care. Amsterdam: Elsevier Health Sciences. Boerema, C. F. (1997). The therapeutic relationship: a phenomenological study of occupational therapists' experience. Adelaide: University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, . Brown, L. (2010). A Therapeutic Relationship. Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing. Carmel Flaskas, A. P. (1999). The therapeutic relationship in systemic therapy. London: Karnac Books. Clarkson, P. (2003). The therapeutic relationship. London: Whurr. Elkind, S. N. (1999). Resolving impasses in therapeutic relationships. New York: Guilford Press. George Stricker, M. F. (1999). Self-disclosure in the therapeutic relationship. New Mexico: Springer. Léger, F. J. (1997). Beyond the therapeutic relationship: behavioral, biological, and cognitive foundations of psychotherapy. London: Routledge. Michael Wagner, M. W. (2006). Exploring the Therapeutic Relationship: Practical Insights for Today's Clinician. Milan: ECKO House Publishing. Patterson, C. H. (2001). The therapeutic relationship: foundations for an eclectic psychotherapy. Michigan: Brooks/Cole. Paul Gilbert, R. L. (2007). The Therapeutic Relationship in the Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapies. London: Routledge. Sheila Haugh, S. P. (2008). The therapeutic relationship: perspectives and themes. Hawaii: PCSS Books. Steven F. Hick, T. B. (2010). Mindfulness and the Therapeutic Relationship. New York: Guilford Press. Videbeck, S. L. (2010). Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Welch, I. D. (2003). The therapeutic relationship: listening and responding in a multicultural world. Connecticut: Praeger. Read More