Client-Centred Rehabilitation - Arthritis Community Research ...

to be a non-hierarchical system. Harrison
(1982) discussed how medical and nonmedical
members of a community clinic in
Vancouver have an equal say in decisionmaking
and review each other=s work.
Certain doctors might find such a system
threatening (Harrison, 1982). Another
barrier to achieving patient-centred care is
the task of physicians and patients sharing
expertise and power (Chewing, and Sleath,
1996). Finally, another challenge to patientcentred
care is the paradoxical relationship
between patient empowerment and
physician control. For example, Skelton=s
(1997) study of whether or not physicians
control or empower their patients suffering
from lower back pain found that patients
willingly left themselves in the control of
the physician in order to meet their goals for
ealth prevention. Another study by Deber,
Kraetschmer and Irvine (1996) showed the
contradictory situation of patients not
willing to hand over total control to
physicians in decision making, yet not
wanting to fully participate in problemsolving.
2.3.3 Nursing Literature: Patient
Focused/Centred Care
The nursing literature employed more than
one definition of patient focused or patientcentred
care. Recently, there has been
considerable response in the nursing
literature to the restructuring of hospitals
with its emphasis on "patient focused care"
which is concerned with the changing
structure and management of institutions
and how this will effect the profession of
nursing (Seago, 1999; Kimble, 1997;
Gallagher 1997, Johnston and Cooper, 1997;
Pence, 1997; Myers, 1998; Burchell and
Jenner, 1996). However, there was also a
substantial body of literature in nursing that
explores patient-centred care as a
philosophy of care that encompasses the
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physical, emotional, social and spiritual
needs of the patient, and ideally includes
mutual collaboration between the patient
and the professional (Millers and Koop
1984). In contrast to the definitions of
“patient focused care” that emphasized the
restructuring of nursing services, Campbell
(1998) defined "patient focused care" as care
that seeks to empower the healthcare
consumer through the transfer of
information and the facilitation of choice.
It is a general opinion in the nursing
literature that nursing has always been more
or less patient-centred (Brown, 1999;
Campbell, 1998). Campbell (1998) noted
that in the nineteenth century, Florence
Nightingale considered nursing to be an act
of caring not only for the symptoms of
illness, but also of the person who was ill.
Brown (1999) also identified the first use of
the term "patient-centred communication" in
the nursing literature to be as early as 1962,
by nurse researcher B.P. Mathews, in
reference to communication that encourages
clients to discuss their lives outside of their
condition.
In the intervening years a number of themes
have emerged in the nursing literature.
Holistic care is a persistent theme in patientcentred
nursing, incorporating as it does the
knowledge and recognition of the patient as
whole person and the importance of
providing emotional support, as well as
physical comfort (Kirkpatrick, Ford and
Castelloe,1997; Millers and Koop, 1984).
The gerontological nursing literature
stressed in particular importance of
protecting the patient's individuality, dignity
and choice (Kenny, 1990; Lustbader 1996;
Gillick, Berkman and Cullen, 1999;
Kirkpatrick et al., 1997; Luckhurst and Ray,
1999). An excellent article by Brown
(1999) addressed the recent literature in
nursing and medicine on "patient-centred