Introduction
In recent years, reflective practice and person-centered care became highly essential in contemporary nursing. Social care and health budgets are currently under substantial pressure, while the number of senior citizens and patients with disabilities and long-term conditions are continuously growing. For instance, the person-centered approach is especially significant for patients who suffer from dementia due to this disease’s clinical manifestations (Mitchell & Agnelli, 2015). As nurses are responsible for the delivery of high-quality health care to people in order to provide them with favorable living conditions, they should consider the collaborative approach to the patients’ treatment. In person-centered health care, people actively participate in their medical assistance in cooperation with health care specialists and their relatives.
Essence
This type of health care encourages patients to develop essential skills, knowledge, and confidence to stay informed and make the right decisions concerning their health. Person-centered care focuses on the needs, preferences, and values of the individual and the providing of responsive and respectful medical assistance. According to Mitchell and Agnelli (2015), a person-centered approach is “humanistic, dignified and morally ethical” (p. 46). The cooperation between medical professionals and patients in rehabilitation and emergency or palliative care are cost-beneficial and provides highly positive health outcomes.
The person-centered approach may be regarded as a common-sense view of all forms of health care, however, it is not a general practice. Although, people should be constantly treated with compassion, dignity, and respect, heal care specialists frequently view patients as the objects of medical assistance rather than partners. In nursing, person-centered health care is expressed in holistic nursing that is defined as a practice that focuses on the whole patient. It recognizes a person as not only his or her disease but the emotional state as well. According to holistic healing, a patient is the interrelation of the body, mind, spirit, emotions, relationships, social and cultural background, and environment. All these aspects should be inevitably taken into consideration by professional nurses to heal a person.
From a personal perspective, the principles of holistic nursing combine knowledge, theory, and experience with intuition and personal characteristics, as the ability to support and show compassion. Moreover, it is crucial to build good, trust-based, and stable relationships with patients to promote health and positively influence their emotional state. In addition, it may be highly beneficial to integrate the practices of alternative medicine into nursing care as they address not only physical but spiritual and psychological patients’ needs as well. It goes without saying that the validity of traditional medicine is not questionable, however, complementary medicine may be additional for efficient and quick recovery.
Conclusion
Although the understanding of the patients’ psychological and mental needs, emotions, cultural differences, and religious values and beliefs are highly essential for competent nurses, cultural humility should be considered as well for beneficial cooperation.
For instance, Chinese families traditionally do not inform their members that they have cancer, and competent nurses should respect this as well. I believe that self-reflection and self-evaluation are two significant elements of cultural humility as they help to perceive other people’s cultures. I also believe that cultural humility is every competent nurse’s career goal. It is impossible to be competent in all religions, languages, and cultures that exist all around the world. Nevertheless, I consider simple interaction with patients, compassion, and the understanding that another culture is essential as well, as the methods that immeasurably increase the efficiency of person-centered care.
Reference
Mitchell, G., & Agnelli, J. (2015). Person-centered care for people with dementia: Kitwood reconsidered. Nursing Standard, 30(7), 46-50.