See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/338580449

Communication Skills in Nursing Practice (2nd Edition)

Book · January 2020

CITATIONS READS

4 20,500

9 authors, including:

Lucy Webb Eula Miller

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University
63 PUBLICATIONS   718 CITATIONS    13 PUBLICATIONS   55 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Gary Witham Gayatri Nambiar-Greenwood

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University
34 PUBLICATIONS   586 CITATIONS    11 PUBLICATIONS   23 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Global mental and psychosocial health View project

communication in healthcare View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Gayatri Nambiar-Greenwood on 15 January 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Chapter 2: The Nurse-Patient Relationship

Eula Miller and Gayatri Nambiar-Greenwood

[Start Box]

This chapter will help you to:

 Engage with people to build professional relationships

 Recognise barriers to developing effective relationships with patients

 Initiate, maintain and close professional relationships

 Develop self-awareness and challenge own prejudices

[A] Introduction

The nurse-patient relationship is central to meeting the patient’s care needs and

therefore communication between the nurse and patient is the foundation on which

this relationship is built (Kourkouta and Papathanasiou, 2014; Arnold and Boggs,

2015). According to Ha and Longnecker (2010), patients value the uncomplicated

style of interaction, continuity of care and nurse-patient time, all of which are

afforded by the nurse-patient relationship.

The National Health Service statutory guidance on involving people in their own

health and care (NHS, 2017) recommends that healthcare professionals should value,

respect and listen to service users as individuals. For the purposes of this chapter, the

nurse-patient relationship is defined as a series of planned interactions that puts the

patient’s need at the core. These interventions focus on the feelings, priorities,

challenges and ideas of the patient, with the progressive aim of enhancing optimum

physical, spiritual and mental health. The nurse-patient relationship is, therefore,

based on patient-centred nursing, which is only possible when there is a solid and

reliable communication between nurse and patient.

However, there are inherent inequalities in the nurse-patient relationship (Ozaras and

Abaan, 2018). Unlike social relationships, patients have little choice about the health

professionals who will care for them. This powerlessness renders the patient

vulnerable, reliant and dependent on practitioners for effectively intervening in their

care (Sheridan et al., 2015). The nurse then has a responsibility to interact, educate

and share information that genuinely has the patient’s best interest central to the

delivery of care (Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), 2018). The development

and management of an effective nurse-patient relationship is therefore a key skill in

nursing, in any field of care.

[A] The foundation of therapeutic relationships

[B] Self-awareness
We feel that the first step to being able to facilitate effective communication is self-

awareness. An individual cannot understand others until they come to know

themselves. This concept has been documented in nursing literature for a number of

decades (Boud et al., 1985; Burnard, 1992; Freshwater, 2002; Jack and Smith, 2007;

Rasheed, 2015). Self-awareness allows us to relate to the experience of others, whilst

developing the important and essential skill of empathy. It commences from early

childhood when we are first able to recognise ourselves in a mirror (around 18 months

– 2 years old), and continues throughout our life.

Healey and McSharry (2011) suggest that a nurse requires the ability to think, feel

and act appropriately in order to develop skills of self-awareness. Therefore, for

example, if a nurse has not come to terms with a personal bereavement, they may

cope less effectively with the needs of a dying patient because of the fears and

discomforts the episode can generate.

There are a number of useful tools that promote self-awareness, for example the

Johari window (Table 2.1).

[INSERT] Table 2.1: The Johari Window (Luft and Ingham, 1969).

The Johari Window is a well-known model of the self that can be used as a tool for

mapping development of self-awareness. It is named after its constructors, Joe Luft

and Harry Ingham (Gill et al., 2015). The model challenges us to reflect on and

explore aspects of ourselves that we may rarely consider normally. To explore and
expand our knowledge of each window, we can set ourselves tasks of self-reflection

or feedback from others.

The open area is what we present to others and is observed by others. This can be

dominated by ‘false fronts’ or ‘masks’ we present to the world and perhaps ourselves,

or aspects of ourselves we are comfortable to share with others; perhaps our

confidence or shyness. The hidden area contains those aspects we know about but

don’t want to share; perhaps anger or jealousy. The blind area is those aspects others

detect about us but we are personally unaware. This area is often best explored

through feedback from other people. The unknown area is that which is hidden even

from ourselves, and too painful to confront or bring to consciousness. Personal

development in self-awareness will make the open and hidden windows bigger and

the blind and unknown windows smaller.

[Start Box]

Stop and Think: Think of at least five aspects of your self (what makes

you, you) that apply to the open and hidden areas. You could put a copy of this in

your portfolio and add to it throughout your course of study. As you gain different

experiences in practice settings, you will be able to demonstrate self-awareness

development by entering what you discover about yourself as a nurse in the blind and

unknown areas. You can even record in your portfolio how you discovered these

things about yourself.

[End Box]

Jack and Miller (2008) have documented a more recent adaptation to this self-

awareness tool, specifically developed for nurses. These authors refer to this as the

Self-Development Awareness Tool (Box 2.1).

The tool is divided into three stages of interpersonal acquisition, which are the ‘Now’

stage, followed by the ‘Transitional’ stage and finally the ‘Re-group’ stage. The

diagram below shows the intricacies and the cue questions set at each stage that

potentially facilitates the nurse journey to becoming more self-aware.

[Start Box]

Box 2.1: The Self-Development Awareness Tool (Jack and Miller, 2008)

The Now Stage:

 Who am I at this moment? (taking into account thoughts, feelings and

behaviour)

 What do I know about myself and what do I show to others? (past experiences

may dictate how we behave. Contextual influences such as the behaviour of

others in the practice setting may have an influence on this.)

 What is it I would like to be more aware of? (this can be difficult but try to

imagine how others see you. They may be aware of certain behaviours that

you had not even thought about)

  What has triggered this desire to change? (Consider what is it you feel

uncomfortable about, or what it is you would like to develop. It may be that

certain assumptions you have are holding you back. Your motivation may be a

personal desire to be more assertive with others, for example)

The Transition Stage:

 What strengths/limitations do I have already? (this will require a certain

amount of honesty.)

 What do I need to develop? (You may need to seek support from others. This

is a proactive process as you actively engage in and develop new learning to

inform practice.)

What are the opportunities and threats to my development? (you may need to discard

prior experiences if they are causing conflict and build on more positive experiences

that you have been part of.)

The Re-group stage:

 Where am I now? (what new knowledge have I gained about myself and the

situation?)

 What has changed about me and the way I am in this situation? (Do I now

think, feel and engage in a different way in these situations?)

 How do we grow/ Where do we go from here? (how can we develop this new

learning and way of being?)

 Acceptance of self at this stage

[End Box]

The experience of this journey should affect our delivery of practice as we are able to

recognise our strengths and limitations and an appreciation for our own acts and

omissions in the care of those who require our help.

[B] Empathy

Reynolds (2017) suggests that empathy is the capacity to enter or view the lived

experience of the other person. It is easy for the new student nurse to confuse

sympathy with empathy, however the difference is fundamental. Sympathy is relating

to another as though they were us, and we were experiencing their situation. Empathy

can be differentiated as being able to relate to another directly and understand how

they experience their situation.

Sympathy: ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes

– ‘If that were me, I’d be very upset.’

Empathy: the ability to be in someone else’s shoes

– ‘I can sense you were very upset.’

Empathy in practice also needs to be demonstrated to the other person to convey

support, understanding and being able to share the other’s experience. This is done by

communication! See Box 4.2 for a definition from a trained hostage negotiator.

[Start Box]

Box 2.2: The hostage negotiator’s definition of empathy

A trained hostage negotiator claims that the key communication skill essential for

gaining trust and engagement in the negotiation process is empathy. A good

negotiator may be there for the hostages, but needs to understand the position of the

hostage takers. So, a good negotiator has sympathy for the hostages, but empathy for

the hostage-takers (Dawson, 2010).

[End Box]

[B] Trust

A nurse-patient relationship is based on trust. The patient needs to feel able to

disclose personal and possibly painful information about themselves and ask

questions that may take courage to express. If a patient cannot ask a nurse a question

that begins with, ‘I know this is going to sound silly, but ….’ who can they ask?
For this reason, The Code insists that nurses demonstrate respect for patients, ensure

and protect the dignity and confidentiality of patients. A registered nurse must at all

times uphold the public trust in the nursing profession (NMC 2018).

[Start Box]

Practice Example Box 2.3: Confidentiality

An off-duty registered nurse on a train overheard three young women, obviously

student nurses, discussing a patient from their recent practice experience. They

commented on his appearance, behaviour and his family, in derogatory terms, they

named the ward he was on and discussed how they would try to avoid him in future.

This conversation could be overheard by all passengers in the vicinity. The registered

nurse reminded the students of The Code (NMC, 2018) and pointed out that the

general public would not be happy to be nursed by people who would discuss them in

such a way.

[End Box]

[Start Box]

Stop and think:

Consider what essential qualities you would expect in someone nursing you or a loved

one. Do you measure up to those expectations? What skills and personal qualities do
you need to develop to become such a nurse? What qualities do you have already?

Have they been recorded in your Johari Window?

Your portfolio Johari Window will now become historical: what you put in to your

Blind & Unknown areas will be those things you did not know about yourself but

have since discovered during your nursing practice. The Johari Window in your

portfolio will act as evidence of your personal and professional development in self-

awareness and communication skills.

[End Box]

[B] Non-judgemental relating

The Code (NMC, 2018) demands that nurses offer fair and equal care to patients from

diverse backgrounds and circumstances. Nurses are not expected to be saints or have

no opinions of their own, but, as a nurse, in whatever circumstances, we need to put

aside personal opinions in order to offer the best care we can. We do not have to agree

with the values, opinions or behaviour of our patients outside the health context.

However, we have to be able to accept the person for who they are regardless of

differences in morals, beliefs and behaviours.

As a nurse, we could be caring for a patient transferred from prison with a history of

some heinous crime, but such patients still have heart attacks, strokes or get

depressed. Equally, we might want to ‘go the extra mile’ for someone we particularly

like, but need to be mindful of what is appropriate. The nurse-patient relationship is a

professional one that respects the patient in their health context regardless of our

personal views.
[B] Genuineness & Authenticity

It would be difficult to develop trust in our patients if professionally we were not

trustworthy, or genuinely interested in their welfare. It is sometimes difficult to

empathise with a person’s situation when their behaviour or attitude is very different

from our own. Genuineness refers to being the authentic self that we present to the

patient; being kind because we are kind, being interested because we are interested.

This is acting with authenticity. Genuineness is suggested by Rogers (1967) to be a

core principle in developing a therapeutic relationship. However, this is not without

its challenges. Nurses are expected to improve a patient’s way of life towards health.

As such, the more a nurse is able to act with authenticity in their professional

relationships while being able to empathise, be trustworthy and non-judgemental, the

higher quality of care such a nurse is likely to achieve. Genuineness is one of the

foundational qualities that defines the authentic development for nursing practice. The

rest of us just have to work at our professional development!

The nurse-patient relationship must commence, develop and terminate with the

patient being confident that their nurse understands their situation, respects them as an

individual, does not judge them but can invest their time and interest in their

wellbeing.

[B] Boundaries

The NMC describes boundaries as defining;

 ‘..the limits of behaviour which allow a nurse or midwife to have a

professional relationship with the person in their care.’ (NMC, 2008, p1).

We can regard the nurse-patient relationship as a process that has goals. It aims to be

therapeutic (good for the patient) and facilitative (enables nursing care). We could add

‘humanistic’ in that it also aims to be positive and beneficent to all concerned and

non-harmful (non-maleficent) to either the patient or the nurse. It is important to

recognise here that the nurse is not expected to be wholly self-sacrificial in his or her

relationships with patients. There is no room, for example, for nurses to be abused or

exploited by patients outside the context of their illness. Nurses should not suffer

physical or verbal injury in their role, although patients can and often do express their

hurt and anger to their nurses.

However, as noted in Chapter 1, the nurse-patient relationship involves a power

differential in favour of the nurse. For the NMC (2018), nurses carry the

responsibility to maintain appropriate boundaries to the relationship with their patient

and conducting personal relationships with vulnerable clients is never acceptable.

The practitioner example Box 2.4 was used by the UK Central Council (now the

NMC) to illustrate financial abuse.

[Start Box]

Practice Example Box 2.4: Example of a breach of boundaries:

Chloe nursed Miss G in her own home. Miss G was paralysed following a bout of

meningitis 2 years ago. Although she required total physical care, she could write her
name. During the six months in which Chloe had cared for her, Miss G had loaned her

a total of £200. Chloe had told Miss G that she could not cope on her salary as an

agency staff nurse.

(UKCC, 1999:6)

[End Box]

[Start Box]

Stop and Think 2.3.

Look at Practice Example Box 2.4. What professional issues do you think this

example raises? Answers from the UKCC below.

The UKCC outlined the following professional issues raised by the example:

 the vulnerability and dependency of Miss G

 the imbalance of power in the relationship

 Miss G’s fear of the withdrawal of care is she does not agree to lend the nurse,

Chloe money

 intimidation and exploitation of the client, even if it is unintentional

 the distortion of the boundaries to the professional practitioner-client

relationship
  moving the focus of care away from meeting the client’s needs towards

meeting the practitioner’s own needs

 financial abuse includes the inappropriate use of a client’s funds, property or

resources and this includes borrowing money from a client.

[End Box]

The example in Box 2.4 illustrates how the blurring of the professional and personal

boundaries can result in abuse of the patient. The professional relationship often

necessarily involves intimacy between the nurse and the patient, but this involves

personal and intimate information from the patient to the nurse, not the other way

around. There is some place for sharing personal information in order to convey

empathy and understanding, for example. The nurse is required to know what is

appropriate and must be guided by ensuring that their care relationship is based on

public trust in the profession.

[Start Box]

Stop and Think 2.4:

Cover up the two right-hand columns on the list of behaviours below (Table 2.2) and

decide whether the behaviour would be acceptable in ANY nurse-patient relationship.

Remember, this could apply to short or long-term relationships with surgical, medical
adult patients, children and their families or adults/children with learning difficulties

or mental illness. See if you agree with the advice given.

[Insert] Table 2.2: Nursing boundaries

[End Box]

If you are unsure of any of these answers, make it an action point for your next

practice placement and discuss a range of scenarios with your mentor. There are very

few exceptions to these general guidelines but the skill of the qualified nurse is

deciding how he or she can justify these exceptions in the context of a patient’s care.

Remember, the nurse-patient relationship necessarily incorporates a power imbalance,

rendering the patient vulnerable and dependent on their nurse. It is the responsibility

of the nurse to maintain the professional division between patient and nurse and resist

attempts from the patient to blur these boundaries. In so doing, the nurse can optimise

the delivery of effective care.

There is more on therapeutic relationships in Chapter 4, Active Listening &

Attending.

[A] The nurse-patient relationship process

The nurse-patient relationship can be described as a good story: it has a beginning, a

middle and an end. Even in a very short or long relationship, the basic pattern should
be the same. We make contact with patients for the first time and commence the

relationship-building process, then we use the relationship in order to deliver care and

finally, we complete the relationship by ensuring the patient is no longer dependent on

us and ready to ‘move on’. This process is described variously in nursing and other

therapeutic health professions, but frequently in the similar terms of a staged process.

Below we will look at two of these.

[B] Peplau’s developmental model; a nursing model of the nurse-patient relationship

Peplau (1997) suggested that the nurse-patient relationship can be divided into four

phases, and that the nurse may have a range of roles to play within the relationship.

See Table 2.3.

[Insert] Table 3: The four phases of the nurse-patient relationship (Peplau 1997)

For Peplau, the nurse acts as a stranger (orientation phase), then a resource, leader,

surrogate and counsellor (other 3 phases). Peplau’s model can be seen as patient-

centred and the nurse takes on a facilitative role rather than setting the agenda.

Perhaps unlike Roper’s model (Holland et al., 2008), where the patient’s needs are

determined by a pre-set list of factors (the Activities of Daily Living), Peplau’s model

depends on the nurse and patient identifying the patient’s needs together. Arguably,

Peplau’s model is therefore more patient-centred.

[B] Burnard’s 8-stage counselling map

Burnard (2005) suggests a similar process suitable for counselling but also reflects the

patient-centred approach (Table 2.4).

[Insert] Table 2.4: Summary of Burnard’s 8 stage counselling map (Burnard 2005,

pp119 – 126)

Burnard’s stages consider the counselling aspect of the practitioner-client relationship,

but can be applied to the nurse’s role as an advocate and as a hands-on carer. Whether

the patient is depressed, has developed a chronic health problem such as diabetes or

schizophrenia, or having straightforward elective surgery, the nurse helps the patient

to explore their health beliefs, attitudes, knowledge or behaviour. In doing this, the

nurse’s role is using the nurse-patient relationship to enhance the patient’s

relationship with their health problem.

[A] Conclusion

This chapter has focussed on defining the nurse-patient relationship rather than

techniques to establish and manage an effective relationship. It has addressed some of

the issues of managing boundaries, but mainly aims to define a good relationship and

what may constitute a breakdown of the professional therapeutic space between nurse

and patient. Management of a good nurse-patient relationship relies on some key

personal and professional skills. These skills are largely good self-awareness of our

own motivations, values and characteristics, together with personal qualities such as
approachability and trustworthiness. These factors are underpinned by good skills in

leading the relationship and understanding its objectives.

The nurse-patient relationship underpins all our encounters with patients and other

service users. Without a sound understanding of and ability to engage in a nurse-

patient relationship, we cannot deliver patient-centred effective care.

[A] References

Arnold, E. C., and Boggs, K. U. (2015). Interpersonal Relationships-E-Book:

Professional Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Boud, D., Keogh, R. & Walker, 0. (1985) Reflection: Turning Experience into

Learning. Kogan Page: London.

Burnard, P. (1992) Know Yourself- Self Awareness Activities for Nurses. Scutari:

London.

Burnard, P. (2005) Counselling Skills for Health Professionals (4th Edn). Nelson-

Thornes, Cheltenham.
Dawson, K. (2010) Podcast: Thank you for my Freedom. Whistledown Productions.

Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s2yll

Freshwater, D. (Ed) (2002) Therapeutic Nursing, Sage: London.

Gill, L.J., Ramsey, P.L. and Leberman, S.I. (2015) Systemic Practice and Action

Research, 28(6): 575-594.

Ha, J. F., and Longnecker, N. (2010). Doctor-patient communication: a review. The

Ochsner Journal, 10(1), 38-43.

Healy, D., and McSharry, P. (2011) Promoting self-awareness in undergraduate

nursing students in relation to their health status and personal behaviours. Nurse

Education in Practice, 11(4), 228-233.

Holland, K., Jenkins, J., Solomon, J. & Whittam, S. (2008) Applying the Roper,

Logan & Tierney Model in Practice (2nd edn), Elsevier, Edinburgh.

Jack, K. and Smith, A. (2007) Promoting self-awareness in nurses to improve nursing

practice, Nursing Standard. 21, 32, 47-5.

Jack, K. and Miller, E. (2008) Exploring self-awareness in mental health practice,

Mental Health Practice, 12:3, 31-35.

Kourkouta, L., & Papathanasiou, I. V. (2014). Communication in nursing practice.

Materia socio-medica, 26(1), 65.

Luft, J. and Ingham, H. (1969) Of Human Interaction,

In, Gill, L. J., Ramsey, P. L., & Leberman, S. I. (2015). A systems approach to

developing emotional intelligence using the self-awareness engine of growth model.

Systemic Practice and Action Research, 28(6), 575-594.

NHS (2017) Involving people in their own health and care (Statutory guidance)

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/wp-

content/uploads/sites/12/2015/10/ohc-paper-06.pdf

NMC (2008) The Code: Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses

and Midwives. Nursing and Midwifery Council, London.

NMC (2018) The Code: Standards of Conduct, Performance & Ethics for Nurses,

Midwives and Nurse Associates. Nursing & Midwifery Council, London.

Ozaras, G., and Abaan, S. (2018) Investigation of the trust status of the nurse–patient

relationship. Nursing Ethics, 25(5), 628-639.

Rasheed, S. P. (2015) Self-Awareness as a Therapeutic Tool for Nurse/Client

Relationship. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 8(1) 211-216.

Rogers, C. (1967) On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy,

Constable. London.

Peplau, H. E. (1997) Peplau’s theory of interpersonal relations. Nursing Science

Quarterly (Winter) 10 (4), 162-7.

 Reynolds, W. J. (2017) The measurement and development of empathy in nursing.

Routledge, London.

Sheridan, N. F., Kenealy, T. W., Kidd, J. D., Schmidt‐Busby, J. I., Hand, J. E.,

Raphael, D. L. & Rea, H. H. (2015). Patients’ engagement in primary care:

powerlessness and compounding jeopardy: A qualitative study. Health Expectations,

18(1), 32-43.

UKCC (1999) Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Must Maintain Proper

Boundaries to Relationships with Patients and Clients, Register (Autumn) 29:6-7.

View publication stats