Effect of Nurse-Patient Relationship on Positive Patient Outcomes

Positive healthcare outcomes do not merely depend upon the efforts of patients, their families, physicians, or the nursing staff alone. It’s a collaborative effort that requires sincere commitments from all partners. Suppose patients and their caretakers fail to comply with treatment guidelines and precautions. In that case, their healthcare providers cannot improve their well-being. Open interaction among parties is necessary to unravel demands, expectations, possibilities, and challenges. And it is not possible without a conducive environment and frank conversation. 

Since nurses are among the first informed mediators between patients and experts, they are responsible for creating a friendly atmosphere. They ensure patients do not feel aloof when interacting with their caregivers. But before that, they strive for a cooperative and healthy relationship with patients themselves. Without gaining patients’ confidence, nurses cannot facilitate their interaction with doctors or contribute to their recovery. Therefore, the nurse-patient relationship is not a casual or momentary encounter. It has a long-lasting influence on the well-being of patients.

The following sections discuss the impact of the nurse-patient relationship on patient outcomes.

Informed decision-making

Nurses have broad professional scope than merely attending to nursing duties. They also facilitate informed decision-making for the well-being and welfare of patients. They interact with support staff, physicians, healthcare administration, and attendants to discuss patients’ concerns. Since these workers have a varying degree of influence, patient treatment can prolong and complicate without the collaboration of these partners. 

Nurses facilitate decisions, policies, and agreements regarding patients after thorough self-observation and consultations with them. And for that, a transparent nurse-patient relationship is essential. Otherwise, nurses cannot comprehend and translate patients’ needs and interests and influence actionable policies. If you’re an aspiring nurse, you can learn how to contribute to decision-making after pursuing an advanced nursing degree program. So, register yourself with CCNE accredited nursing programs and improve your analysis, leadership, persuasive, and decision-making skills. But ensure to register with schools accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Accredited nursing schools provide more skill development and exposure opportunities along with education.

Delivering satisfying care and attention

Generally, patients and their attendants are more open to sharing their concerns with their attending staff than experts. They are also more reluctant to involve in casual and informal conversations with physicians and doctors than nurses. Regardless of who attended the patient, if their previous experiences were unpleasant, they feel more distanced from specialists. However, their hesitancy can create a gap between requirements and expected attention from the healthcare provider. 

Their reservations may increase the duration of treatment or lead to unpleasant outcomes. The caregiver cannot observe or decode demands if care recipients do not open up. Thus, nurses are moderators between patients, healthcare facilities, and experts. Nurses minimize their distance and communication gap and facilitate a healthy relationship with their caregivers. The nurse-patient relationship is like a direct passage for sharing demands and simplifying supply. In the end, if patients still crave undivided attention, nursing staff can attend to their concerns and fulfill unmet requirements.

Effective diagnostic and therapeutic procedures

People refer to healthcare services when their issues have worsened. They expect to receive immediate care and recovery from their health issues when they finally refer to experts. However, their treatment procedure and plan may not follow the same pace as their affordability or hopes. A treatment procedure may lead to unexpected outcomes than previous calculations and expectations. Therapeutic procedures can be painful, expensive, and nerve-wracking. If you do not trust your caregiver, they cannot endeavor in your best interest. 

And sometimes, you do not have any other option than to seek their comforting words and sympathy. Thus, striving for healthy interaction with your caregiver is essential to simplify the procedure of whatever treatment fits your condition. A trustworthy relationship is inevitable for them to discuss treatment procedures, available alternatives, possible complications, and expected expenditure without reservations. Hence, trust their knowledge, expertise, and humanitarian concern, and let them do their work. Your trust and cooperation are also necessary to prevent miscalculations, unpredictable errors, and further complications.

Minimum post-procedure complications

Sometimes, the recovery process does end after discharge from the hospital. Patients must receive nursing care until full recovery to prevent complications. For that, they have to rely on the support of the nursing staff. However, patients often fail to attend to nurses as much as their physicians. They believe nurses do not qualify for instructions and directives, given their assisting role in their treatment. However, doctors cannot accommodate every patient for post-treatment and nursing care. That is why the nursing field emerged to cater to assisting responsibilities. 

And nurses possess enough qualifications for their roles. Neglecting their guidelines means inviting healthcare challenges. So, a nurse-patient relationship is essential to facilitate guided cooperation between nurses and patients. Patients are more likely to attend to post-treatment precautions if they trust their caregivers. Trust and confidence from patients also simplify nursing duties. 

Managing healthcare burden and expenses

The quality of the nurse-patient relationship also contributes to healthcare expenditure and burden. Nurses spend the most time on patient care and nursing than their physicians. Their nursing duties and attentive care can minimize further complications if they are proactive. Their coordinated interaction with experts can reduce barriers to speedy attention, reducing complexities and cost. In addition, immediate recovery and minimum healthcare complications also minimize the burden on the healthcare infrastructure. 

The healthcare care burden increases when health issues worsen, and the patient is negligent of consequences. The healthcare staff, including nurses and doctors, experience exhaustion and burnout if their workload increases beyond their commitment. They may not care for patients with the same vigor and attention if they have to attend to mounting work pressure. Thus, a healthy nurse-patient relationship ensures treatment follows the anticipated pace, and hospital infrastructure and resources are available for more attention-demanding patients.

Better patient advocacy

The healthcare providers always seek patients’ well-being and long-term welfare. At times, their concerns and advocacy may also contradict the reservations of patients’ attendants. However, nurses cannot neglect and bypass patients’ families and well-wishers if they are unfamiliar with the healthcare system or disease complexities. Patients have to resume their lives outside the healthcare facility without nurses by their sides. They cannot enjoy indefinite dependency or avail themselves of the support from their doctors and nurses. So, nurses must facilitate patients’ integration into their routine lives and surroundings. 

Contradiction or conflict of opinions is not in the best interests of anyone. And consequences can be more challenging for the patients’ health and recovery process. Hence, nurses must take on board patients’ families, present patients’ points of view, and negotiate for a healthy environment. They can inform attendants and enhance patient support with better advocacy and negotiation rather than disagreements with them.

Conclusion

Nurses carry out ranging responsibilities to facilitate patients with premium and personalized care. Nurses contribute to smooth healthcare operations so that patients receive quality healthcare services. Likewise, they look after intermediary protocols and minimize unnecessary engagement for patients. 

Nurses also ensure patients do not engage or suffer in endless diagnostic and treatment procedures. They facilitate patients with a communication medium to convey their demands. But all of these engagements are not possible without healthy and trust-based nurse-patient interaction.