THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIPS IN NURSING

Therapeutic Relationships In Nursing



Therapeutic Relationships In Nursing

Introduction

Therapeutic relationship has been shown to decrease patients anxiety levels and increase their pain tolerance levels when other more mainstream therapies have not been completely effective. 'Therapeutic relationship is a process by which energy is transmitted from one person to another for the purpose of potentiating the healing process of one who is ill or injured.' In my capacity as a nursing student on a medical- surgical unit, it is noticed an increase in pain medication requests among patients with incision site pain and a minimal use of alternative therapies for this pain management. With the use of Therapeutic relationship nurses can regain closeness with patients and also have a direct effect on their pain level. Therefore the purpose of this study will be to determine if Therapeutic relationship is an effective intervention for patients experiencing surgical incision site pain within the first forty-eight hours after surgery.

Problem Statement

The question posed for study is: 'Is Therapeutic relationship an effective intervention for decreasing a patients surgical site pain within the first forty-eight hours after surgery?'. The independent variable is Therapeutic relationship. The dependant variable is decreasing surgical location pain. The community to be investigated will be patients on a thirty bed medical-surgical floor of a lagoon Charles hospital. Fifty surgical patients will be researched over a four week period. The patients will be randomly chosen to bypass any bias by the researcher.

Significance Of The Problem

The Therapeutic relationship is a nursing intervention that has the potential for eliciting a state of physiological relaxation in patients and for decreasing patients anxiety' (Heidt, 1991). The use of Therapeutic relationship is very important to the nursing community. The need for direct intervention in acute or chronic pain could be managed at the bedside with no need to await a doctor's order for pharmacological intervention. Anxiety could be lessened to let patients rest more comfortably in the hectic clinic environment. Also educating could be enhanced in the less anxious and more agony free client. Apurchaser that is accepted to the clinic for surgery may not get all the rest required for proper recovery and healing due to insufficient agony relief from pharmacologic interventions. The need for more in depth research and application in the field of Therapeutic relationship as a nursing intervention is essential.

Discussion

 In organising to undertake this research, diverse types of literature should be examined. In a study done by Nancy Ann Kramer, MSN, RN on Therapeutic relationship and casual relationship stress reduction of hospitalized children (1990), her study supported the use of Therapeutic relationship. She states '... the intervention of Therapeutic relationship will more quickly reduce the child's stress and provide comfort for a longer time, which eventually may decrease the hospital stay and decrease nursing work.'. The author states that more research may need to be done with a larger sample and a wider range of patient stressors to further support the use of Therapeutic relationship in a clinical ...