Communication Skills, Family Centred Care and Compassion; Necessary to Develop and Maintain Therapeutic Relationships with Pediatric Clients.

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Communication skills, family centred care and compassion are necessary attributes for a nurse to have, in order to develop and maintain therapeutic relationships with pediatric clients. Nursing pediatric patients while having many similarities to nursing those of other age groups brings unique challenges due to the young age of the person. Nursing babies and children takes a special kind of nurse. One who is sensitive to the needs of the whole family. Skills in how to communicate effectively with both the pediatric patient and their parents are important for a nurse to foster to maintain good therapeutic relationships. Person centred care becomes family centred care when babies and children are the patients. The dependent nature of the patient increases the need for parental responsibility and advocacy for the child. It is important for all members of the family to be taken into account when nursing a pediatric patient, especially the primary caregivers and siblings. Chochinov, 2007 (cited in Cornwell & Goodrich, 2009), states simply that compassion is ‘a deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.’ Pediatric patients and their families are highly sensitive to the compassionate nature of health care professionals and a successful therapeutic relationship with them depends on the sensitive, compassionate care offered by the nurse. This paper will discuss why communication, family centred care and compassion are necessary and important qualities for a nurse to possess when working with pediatric patients and specify some of the challenges a nurse may meet in providing these. Communicating with Babies and Children Nursing children and babies requires a highly skilled and sensitive approach to communication. The developmental age of the pediatric patient needs to be considered when determining the best ways to

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