Patient-Centered Care

Definition: What is Patient-Centered Care and Why is it Important?

Understanding the importance of Patient-Centered Care is crucial as it directly impacts the quality of healthcare. It delivers multiple benefits including improved patient satisfaction, enhanced patient safety, reduced healthcare costs, and potentially better patient health outcomes.

The role of QSEN Patient Centered Care

The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) provides clear guidelines for Patient-Centered Care in nursing. QSEN emphasizes understanding each patient or designee as the source of control and as a full partner when considering their care plan.

Patient Centered Care Principles in Nursing

There are certain guiding principles in implementing Patient-Centered Care in the nursing profession. These principles serve as a blueprint on how to provide care that truly puts patients at the heart.

The main principles are:

• Respect for patients' values, preferences, and expressed needs
• Coordinated and integrated care
• Clear, high-quality, and accessible information and education for the patient and family
• Physical comfort and emotional support
• Involvement of family and friends

Benefits of Implementing Patient Centered Care in Clinical Placement

Implementing Patient-Centered Care in clinical placements presents numerous benefits:

Models and Examples of Patient-Centered Care in Nursing

As Patient-Centered Care has grown in importance, a variety of models and frameworks have been developed to guide its application in nursing. These models aim to provide a systematic approach to delivering care that is centred around the patient.

The Patient-Centered Care Model

One of the most renowned frameworks for Patient-Centered Care is the Picker Institute's Eight Principles of Patient-Centered Care. These guidelines act as a compass in ensuring that patients remain the focal point in every facet of healthcare provision.

Examples of Successful Patient and Family Centered Care

Another example comes from the story of a 44-year-old man, who was living with advanced congestive heart failure. Because of his condition, trips to the hospital were regular, and he was readmitted within a month after every discharge. When the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver started to involve the patient in decisions about his care plan, the situation began to change. The man highlighted his desire to have less hospital visits and more home-based care.

The new plan involved home healthcare nurses visiting regularly, and the man was given guidance to control his symptoms at home. If hospital visits were needed, they were planned in advance to avoid emergencies. The result was a 90% decline in the frequency of his hospital visits, improving his quality of life significantly.

Both of these examples clearly illustrate how Patient-Centered Care can lead to meaningful changes in healthcare quality and patient satisfaction. It underscores the importance of including patients and their families in the design and execution of their care plans.

Achieving Rewarding Clinical Placement Through Patient-Centered Care

Patient-Centered Care can play an integral role in transforming a routine clinical placement stint into a rewarding and gratifying educational experience for nursing students. By involving patients and their families in their care, nursing students can gain practical insights into an approach that promotes improved health outcomes, patient satisfaction, and care efficiency.

How to Establish Patient and Family Centered Care

Patient and Family Centered Care (PFCC) is not merely an approach to care but a philosophy that moves beyond treating diseases to focusing on the whole person and their health. Here is how to establish PFCC in a healthcare setting.

First and foremost, to establish PFCC, everyone involved in providing care, including students during clinical placements, need to embrace a specific set of values and behaviours focused on the needs of the patient and their family.

• Recognise and respect the expertise and insights that patients and families bring to the healthcare partnership.
• Consider patients and their families as full partners in the provision of care.
• Encourage and support active involvement of patients and families in care and decision making at the level they choose.

This involves sharing complete and unbiased information useful in making critical decisions and offering support, enabling patients to make the best healthcare decisions.

QSEN's Role in Promoting and Enhancing Patient Centered Care in Nursing

QSEN or Quality and Safety Education for Nurses play an indispensable role in advancing and enhancing Patient-Centered Care in nursing.

In promoting and enhancing Patient-Centered Care, QSEN goes beyond theoretical knowledge. It emphasizes the need for nursing students to develop attitudes and skills that influence their Patient-Centered Care practices. Some KSAs for Patient-Centered Care, as recommended by QSEN, are:

• Value seeing health care situations ‘through patients' eyes.'
• Recognise the patient or designee as the source of control and full partner in providing compassionate and coordinated care based on respect for patient’s preferences, values, and needs.
• Share authority and decision-making power with patients and families.

Through its KSAs, QSEN encourages nursing students and professionals to focus on empathy, active listening, and collaboration, leading to a better understanding of the patient’s experience and improved Patient-Centered Care. It places high importance on making patients and their families feel valued, respected, and engaged in healthcare decisions.