Not only do nurses work to gain patients’ trust, but also patients expect nurses to give clinical care (physical, technical, and procedural) and personalized care. According to Dr. Groopman (2005) explains that finding time for patients by health care providers is a therapeutic process, as well as an outcome which requires time and effort.
This involvement involves a process of knowing patients and a dialectic synthesis, through which they can integrate subjective and objective data (Groopman, 2005). They process information subjectively from direct observations of patients and from patients’ representations of their situations.
Time management strategies that work best for nurses include analyzing the workday and prioritizing the workload. Depending on the individual situation, available resources, and safety concerns, different strategies may be selected and implemented. Time may be managed successfully through the use of checklists, delegation, planning ahead, and by dividing large projects or tasks into smaller, more manageable undertakings.
However, creating time for patients by health care providers may differ depending on the practice setting. For example, in home health care, Groopman (2005) identified six time management strategies: take control of your calendar, minimize time spent in office, tame the telephone, simplify documentation, plan ahead, and save time for others.
Knowing patients has been described as a complex, interpersonal process requiring a number of nursing actions. The process of perceiving /envisioning patients help nurses actively transform observations of patients’ behavior into a direct “perception of what was significant in it” (Groopman, 2005).
It is important for healthcare professionals to find time for patients because of identifying their needs and to know what can be done to improve the situation (Groopman, 2005). It allows health care practitioner develop skill in understanding patients’ subjective perceptions and objective clinical status. It allows practitioners expand and revise their knowledge about patients by obtaining direct data about patients’ bodies.
Furthermore, spending time with patients helps nurses to understand their concerns about fears and anxieties, their personal preferences, their styles of coping, their stressors, and how to gain their trust (Groopman, 2005). It also builds on the partnership and relationship principles of trust, respect, support, communication, and commitment. The principles of spending time with patients can be used to build all types of partnerships, not only partnership with the patients.
In the health care sector, creation of time for the patients is a model that creates structures, tools, standards, and paths to accomplish the goal of healing and promoting wholeness.
The impact of finding time for patients is that when patients get the responses they want, they feel good about their encounter with healthcare providers, and their need for positive interaction is satisfied. When patients feel good about their experiences, they are more willing to cooperate and are more likely to repeat their contacts with the practitioner.
If their experience is negative, however, they are likely to avoid and limit further treatment. Depending on what is required to complete their care, patients’ avoidance may have very serious consequences. It may cause them to avoid getting needed help, or it may cause them to ignore the healthcare instructions they have been given.
Finding time for patients is to establish a therapeutic relationship, which is directed at gaining an effective outcome from care that is centered on the person person’s needs and life perspectives.
Reference
Groopman, J. (2005). Finding Time for Patients. Web.