The Concept of Trust and the Nurse-Patient Relationship

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Assignment 2: Conceptual/critical thinking exercise – The concept of trust and the nurse-patient relationship The concept of trust and nurse-patient relationship The bulk of the nursing literature tends to agree that trust underpins good nursing practice and is a vital component of the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship (Hem, Heggen & Ruyter, 2008; Johns, 1996; Belcher, 2009). However, there is much ambiguity in the literature about what this abstract concept actually means. The purpose of this essay is to define and develop the concept of trust as it relates to the nurse-patient relationship. This essay will also highlight the importance of trust in the nurse-patient relationship and some of the good points and bad points about this concept. In addition to this, the role of nursing theory and research in concept development will briefly be discussed. Please note the search strategies that were used to locate the literature for this essay will be attached as an appendix (see Appendix). In the nursing literature a clear definition of what is meant by the concept of trust is hard to find and trust is often used interchangeably with other concepts such as faith, respect, and confidence (Belcher, 2009; Hupcey, Penrod, Morse, & Mitcham, 2001). However, the general consensus of most authors is that trust is the willingness of an individual to place their confidence and faith in the goodwill of others (Johns, 1996; Hams, 1997; Hupcey et al., 2001. In other words one person in the relationship, the truster, believes that the other person in the relationship, the trustee, can be depended upon (Stein-Parbury, 2005). For a trusting relationship to occur Hupcey et al., (2001) explain that certain attributes must always be present.

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