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The healthcare sector has experienced several challenges in a strive to provide quality services with particular emphasis placed on the nurses. In this article, the author emphasizes the concept of interpersonal relationships that exist between the patient (health client) and the caregiver in regard to the excesses of care: a matter of understanding the asymmetry of power. The author asserts that there have been issues on how the nurses practice ethical standards while delivering services to the patients due to misunderstanding and misuse of power given to them. The issue of closeness and distance features is obvious in the article, the absolute power of nurses to dictate the management of patients is also mentioned. In essence, the author brings in the issue of communication skills and interpersonal relationships that exist between nurses and patients. According to Delmar (2012), there are circumstances in which the nurses stick to professionalism by focusing much on prescription of medicine and supervision of recovery with less regard to the social aspect of the patient’s condition.
A research study undertaken by the author of this article involved a sample population from nurses and patients; and their ideas and past experiences on this debate. (Delmar, 2012). The response is excellent in terms of the nearness to accuracy of the data and its consistency with the daily experiences in a typical healthcare facility settings managed by nurses. The study stresses the ethical demand on nurses to create a friendly and closer relationship with the patients so that the social factors contributing to their state of health may be taken into consideration by the caregivers. The limited rights given to the patients to express their discontent and, also, confide in the nurses indicate a sense of burden on the side of the patients. This is explained by the author of this article as not helping the recovery path of the patients. Delmar (2012) asserts that the power of misrepresentation favor the nurses, this makes them handle the patients with total negligence to emotional needs and social inadequacies.
A critical assessment of this article gives an insight into the significance of a healthy relationship between patients and nurses in the healthcare sector. In respect of the article under question, it can be seen that the powers given to the nurses should be used in the best interest of the patients. The main role of nurses is to help with the quick recovery of the patients. However, this can be achieved by not only supervising their adherence to the prescription schedule but by creating some level of informal relationship with the patients. This proximity between the nurses and the patients is likely to make the patients free to disclose some aspects of their personal lives to the nurses. This will help the nurses to manage these patients better and might give room to quicker recovery of these patients. The nurses need to learn how to communicate effectively; taking into consideration that social factor also influences the health status of the patient (Delmar, 2012). If a professional proximity exists, there is a huge chance that the patients would confide in the nurses on issues regarding their private life, which may be related to their conditions. This would help in offering emotional therapy besides medical prescription and facilitate the rate of recovery progress. It is imperative that the nurses go beyond the limits of their formal roles and navigate towards the social factors connected to each patient in an effort to boost the quality of care offered to them. This article is essential for bettering nursing practices as regards the use of the power given to the nurses as they assist patients with their recovery.
Works Cited
Delmar, C. (2012). The Excesses of Care: A Matter of Understanding the Asymmetry of Power. Nursing Philosophy, Vol. 13. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp. 236–243.
