As we recently celebrated Nurses Week, I sit here and reflect upon where we have been and where we are going as a profession. We have persevered through good times and bad, periods of war and peace, and financial booms and recessions. Yet through all of these times, the role of the nurse has remained steadfast: to promote wellness and health through our caring practices. While our practice brings about outcomes that equate to quality and satisfaction for patients, families, co-workers, and ultimately the healthcare industry, it always boils down to one key word-“relationships.”

A larger question then emerges: How do we as nurses utilize relationships to deliver care and thus, our practice? Is there a correlation between relationship development and healthcare-particularly nursing? Many schools of thought and healthcare leaders seem to believe so.

In the 1960s and 70s, nursing leaders like Marie Manthey realized that the care we delivered as a profession needed to be focused on a patient-and family-centered approach rather than a task-oriented one. Manthey also suggested that this approach needed to be the “primary” method for delivering nursing care because it promoted relationship development with our patients and families that could lead to better, more individualized plans of care as well as optimal care outcomes (Boltz, 2011). Read more…