Psychotherapy replies

POST # 2 AYME

Patient-centeredness or person-centeredness is arguably one of the invaluable approaches to present-day nursing. In essence, as can be extrapolated from Carl Rogers’ approach to person-centeredness, the success of this concept is pillared on the values of trust and an altruistic approach when it comes to understanding and responding to the needs of the patient. Unquestionably, the ability to provide person-centered care is pegged to the ability to effectively understand the unique needs of the patient; verbally expressed and the ones that cannot be expressed. I, therefore, find a lot of agreement with Rogers’ assertion that “trying to genuinely understand the client” is one of the building blocks of person-centered therapy. According to Molony,  Kolanowski, Van Haitsma & Rooney (2018), the success of person-centered care is based on a nurse’s or care provider’s ability to empathize with the patient and seek a deep understanding of the patient’s peculiarities in terms of physical, psychological, social, cultural, perceptional, spiritual and emotional needs. In particular, a patient may not be able to express all needs and it requires the intuition of the nurse to understand even the unexpressed needs. The ability to achieve this, therefore, requires a genuine and intrinsic interest in understanding the patient as Rogers asserts.

   In the same vein, I also read from the same script with Rogers on the second assertion that underscores the importance of “genuinely and unconditionally caring about the client”.  As Taylor, Lynn & Bartlett (2018) assert, even with an effective and comprehensive assessment of the patients’ needs, one has to go the extra mile to put the assessment information into an actionable plan that facilitates the achievement of those needs. To a large extent, this calls for intrinsic motivation to meet the holistic needs of the patient (van Belle, Giesen, Conroy, van Mierlo, Vermeulen, Huisman‐de Waal & Heinen, 2020). Therefore, the second assertion by Rogers fits seamlessly as one of the building blocks of person-centered therapy. Of course, meeting all the needs presented by a client can be hard since they may touch on different cultures and spiritual beliefs that may be contradictory to personal belief structures. According to Clarke & Fawcett (2016), it takes a firm belief in the principles of selflessness and beneficence to overlook personal beliefs in the favor of the patient by going the extra mile to innovatively lend services or interventions contradictory to personal beliefs, but yet, meaningful to the patient.

   The third principle outlined by Rogers touches on the need to be “authentic in the therapeutic relationship”. Being authentic translates to engaging the client on a human-to-human basis whereby it is mutual-respect and expression of ideas, thoughts, and emotions. It is through this approach that one can gain a better understanding of the patient's or client’s inner-most feelings and experiences that can go a long way toward fostering the formation of a successful therapeutic plan (Zhao, Gao, Wang, Liu & Hao, 2016). For instance, as can be extrapolated from the video, there is a a deliberate approach to win the trust of the client through empathy, expression of emotions as well as emotional intelligence and making the client more comfortable to share personal information that enhances a better understanding of underlying needs.

   In a nutshell, therefore, I am quite in agreement with all the assertions by Carl Rogers in as far as providing effective person-centered care is concerned, The three principles can be termed as the building blocks of an effective therapeutic relationship that can be leveraged for the client’s growth and the ability to subdue any stressor or health issue. Practicing the three principles is quite promising when it comes to empowering the patient to rise above any stressful situation and experience holistic healing.

References

Clarke, P. N., & Fawcett, J. (2016). Nursing knowledge driving person-centered care. Nursing science quarterly, 29(4), 285-287.

Molony, S. L., Kolanowski, A., Van Haitsma, K., & Rooney, K. E. (2018). Person-centered assessment and care planning. The Gerontologist, 58(suppl_1), S32-S47.

Taylor, C., Lynn, P., & Bartlett, J. (2018). Fundamentals of nursing: The art and science of person-centered care. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

van Belle, E., Giesen, J., Conroy, T., van Mierlo, M., Vermeulen, H., Huisman‐de Waal, G., & Heinen, M. (2020). Exploring person‐centred fundamental nursing care in hospital wards: A multi‐site ethnography. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(11-12), 1933-1944.

Zhao, J., Gao, S., Wang, J., Liu, X., & Hao, Y. (2016). Differentiation between two healthcare concepts: Person-centered and patient-centered care. journal-of-nursing, 2352, 0132.