Learning Needs
Patient-centered care can be seen as the cornerstone of a nurse’s practice. First of all, focusing on the patient and his needs is primarily identified with the care that the nurse must provide. Furthermore, such an attitude breaks the doctor’s usual authority over the patient, providing psychological comfort and the absence of tension and fear during treatment. Moreover, respect for the patient should raise the level of general motivation in the treatment area, set an example for other doctors, and give the feeling that we live in a world where everyone cares. In order to make such a method of care a reality, it is necessary to master some fundamental skills that form a humane approach to the patient, based on interaction with him.
Learning Goal #1 – Reflection
Regular reflection, the ability to ask questions and question the environment, and an inquisitive mind are essential skills for a nurse. It is not just new information and its receipt that is important here, but rather the ability to build your attitude to a particular situation, based on the available data. Understanding that you take your own place and attach importance to it makes it possible to do your work meaningfully and thoughtfully, giving it a purpose.
Goal #1 – Activities and Timeframes
It should be my task to be constantly on the alert, to be ready to change my ideas depending on how common sense requires it in the case of each particular patient. Reflection implies the ability to comprehend and give meaning to the environment in order to navigate in it. In the case of my profession, this is the environment – patients and their condition.
Learning Goal #2 – Dialogue
As important as the internal dialogue with oneself, I find the dialogue between the nurse and the patient. Patient-centered care includes conversation as one of the basic practices of interacting with the patient and a logical and easy way to understand his needs. The ability to listen and the desire to really help a person, to try to fulfill his expectations, is the key to this method of care.
Goal #2 – Activities and Timeframes
Obviously, the empathy inherent in such a humane approach works positively, helping the patient to more effectively feel himself, understand what is bothering him, and articulate it more clearly. In addition, respectful dialogue and the pursuit of understanding between the patient and his nurse can serve as a guarantee of continued recovery. Pleasant communication does not harm in any way and even helps the patient because it makes the environment around him as psychologically favorable as possible.
Learning Goal #3 – Collaboration
In the light of patient-centered care, an equally important skill is a collaboration between doctor and patient, an interaction aimed at achieving results as quickly as possible. The patient’s personal preferences are pronounced by him with sufficient sincerity to believe in their veracity. A polite and productive dialogue with the patient is necessary in order to leave with him a thoughtful plan for his future treatment.
Goal #3 – Activities and Timeframes
It is important for us to make the patient comfortable enough for him to feel exactly what he wants and what is missing. The patient is given the will and the opportunity to choose the most appropriate treatment method. A nurse, on the other hand, should be interested in ensuring that none of the patient’s wishes come to harm them, to cooperate with them, thus trying to take care of the patient in the most effective way.
How Do My Learning Goals Support My Commitment to Continuing Competency?
It is really important to be able to be aware of the internal personal changes that are taking place in the nursing profession. A person can always listen to his own emotions and realize whether he occupies the right place in the social order and whether he is psychologically comfortable with himself. This psychological comfort, and confidence in the chosen direction, should be natural and undeniable for a nurse who chooses a patient-centered approach. A sense of inner balance that is not disturbed, but only reinforced by acts of self-reflection, characterizes a nurse who has mastered the skills necessary for reliable care.
Evaluation of Changes/Outcomes to My Practice
Of course, the main result by which I can say that I have mastered the above skills will be an improvement in the quality of life of patients. Since conversation and frankness in communication are so fundamental to our medical approach, I need to be assured that the patients under my control sincerely feel better about themselves. If it is true, this is happening not least due to the fact that I communicate with them on an equal footing. Through this, they understand that they have a chance to recover and that they themselves can participate in this (Eklund et al., 2019). The patient also realizes that the medical community treats him like a human. The medical institute is itself interested in improving the patient’s life, which removes possible prejudices and also helps with treatment.
The last decisive factor in ensuring that all the necessary principles of a patient-centered approach are met is a strong sense of unity between the nurse, the patient, and his family. In this practice, the patient should not feel excluded from the dialogue about himself, and his family is a reliable assistant in finding the right solution. The feeling that the doctor, the patient, and the patient’s family are working together and as a team with a single goal is perhaps the main proof of the functionality of patient-centered care.
Thus, it can be said that there are certain specific skills that form a trusting relationship between doctors and patients in the context of patient-centered care. Communication between all elements of the equation is essential for this method to work. The patient’s health, his involvement in the process, and the mutually respectful interaction between him, doctors, a nurse, and family members prove the effectiveness of such a humanistic approach.
Reference
Eklund, J. H., Holmström, I. K., Kumlin, T., Kaminsky, E., Skoglund, K., Höglander, J., Sundler, A. J., Condén, E., Meranius, M. S. (2019). “Same same or different?” A review of reviews of person-centered and patient-centered care. Patient Education and Counseling, 102(1), 3-11. Web.