Essay Sample: How to Develop the Components of a Therapeutic Relationship

For a successful therapy process to take place, a nurse or any medical practitioner has to develop a good therapeutic relationship with his/her patient. A therapeutic relationship refers to the relative association that exists between a medical practitioner and his/her patient before, during, and after a therapy process. The patient must be open-minded and precise in the sense that whatever information he/she gives the medic should be relevant to how he/she is feeling; not to mention what they are not experiencing. The medic administering the therapy process must be accommodative to what the patient has to say, not limiting the information they are providing. Establishment of the patients medical history is also another key factor to facilitate a good therapeutic relationship.

How the factors mentioned in (1) above promote communication in the nurse-client relationship

How open the client is with the nurse will help determine fast what the patient is suffering from, to establish the relevant therapeutic process to initiate. The nurse, on the other hand, has to allow the patient to freely express him/herself so that he/she (the nurse) can get all the details about the client (Geller & Greenberg, 2012). Consequently, the clients medical history helps the nurse to understand how the condition of the client has been before and how it has been dealt with; whether the initial diagnoses and prognoses were right or wrong. All these factors aim at hastening the therapeutic process for the client.

(i) Phase one: Medical history of the client

As mentioned in (2), this will help the nurse to navigate how to deal with the patients condition with regard to his/her past condition. The problem with this measure is that many patients lack medical history references; in some instances where a lot of paperwork was involved, the patient carelessly loses the required documents. Change of hospitals has also been a limiting factor in accessing the patients medical history.

(ii) Phase two: Tests and Diagnoses

Carrying out relevant tests on the client to establish the exact mental condition of the patient comes in as a second step. This involves a lot of procedures which have to be significantly precise. Dealing with a patient with a mental condition is a problem basing on the fact that the patient might be losing his/her mind not knowing what he/she is doing (Sucala, et al. 2012).

(iii) Phase three: Therapy

After determining the mental condition of the patient, the primal step that follows is establishing how to deal with the condition. Administration of drugs and injections (if any) forms part of the therapy process. Engaging the patient on the precautionary measures to enforce while on prognosis to help them come out of the condition also enhances quick recovery (Theodoridou, et al. 2012).

References

Geller, S. M., & Greenberg, L. S. (2012). Therapeutic presence: A mindful approach to effective therapy. American Psychological Association.

Sucala, M., Schnur, J. B., Constantino, M. J., Miller, S. J., Brackman, E. H., & Montgomery, G. H. (2012). The therapeutic relationship in e-therapy for mental health: a systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 14(4).

Theodoridou, A., Schlatter, F., Ajdacic, V., Rossler, W., & Jager, M. (2012). Therapeutic relationship in the context of perceived coercion in a psychiatric population. Psychiatry research, 200(2), 939-944.