The Relationship Itself

Abstract

For the remainder of our discussion of the nurse-patient relationship, we shall assume that the nurse is primarily concerned with sustaining her clients in their subjective experiences. The how of this sustaining action depends, apart from the client’s individual state and the nurse’s competency in the field, on a variety of factors, such as the phase of development of the relationship, its duration and the frequency with which it occurs, and, last but not least, the setting in which nurse and patient find themselves. Although these factors are closely interrelated, for the sake of clarity they will be discussed separately. Let us turn first to the phases of the nurse-patient relationship.