Kamettrica,
It has been my experience that nurses form the backbone of the care plan when it comes
to taking care of patients. Nurses address the emotional, mental, and physical needs of their
injured or sick patients (Shi & Singh, 2019). To be a nurse is a very selfless career and the
people called to do it are extremely rare individuals. When I read the Bible and think of nurses,
Matthew 25 comes to mind. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells his disciples “For I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I
was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to
me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed
you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or
naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King
will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you
did it to me” (English Standard Version Bible, 2001, Matthew 25:35-40). This set of verses
perfectly describes the way that nurses care for their patients.
The level of empathy that nurses have for their patients is a well-documented
phenomenon. A nurse’s level of empathy can be directly correlated to the level of patient
satisfaction observed. It has also been suggested that nurses that do not have a high level of
empathy towards their patients are not performing their duties and everyday tasks in an ethical
manner (Teófilo et al., 2018). The more confident nurses appear before their patients, the more
the patient trusts the nurses that are caring for them in healthcare settings. These feelings of
empathy that nurses are the very foundation of the trust that is established between the patient
and the nurse’s relationship. Nurses don’t just treat these people as a simple patient, they involve
the patient in the care plan. Nurses also involve the families of the patient to improve the levels
of trust and improve the nurse-patient relationship. The nurse-patient relationship is one of the
most important relationships in the healthcare setting. This relationship enhances the mental,
social, and physical well-being while at the same time enhancing the treatment experience that
patients recieve (Strandås & Bondas, 2017).
Work Cited
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). Matthew 25:35-40 ESV Online.
https://esv.literalword.com/
Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2019). Essentials of the U.S. health care system (5th ed.). Jones and
Bartlett Publishers.
Strandås, M., & Bondas, T. (2017). The nurse-patient relationship as a story of Health
Enhancement in Community Care: A meta-ethnography. Journal of Advanced Nursing,
74(1), 11–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13389
Teófilo, T. J., Veras, R. F., Silva, V. A., Cunha, N. M., Oliveira, J. dos, & Vasconcelos, S. C.
(2018). Empathy in the nurse–patient relationship in Geriatric Care: An Integrative Review.
Nursing Ethics, 26(6), 1585–1600. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733018787228
