Importance of Person-Centred Care

What Is Person-Centred Care?

The person-centred care approach honours the uniqueness of individuals seeking care and recognises their varying needs and desires. It tailors healthcare experiences to match the individual’s specific requirements, involving attentive listening, flexible care planning, and sincere regard for their evolving needs. By prioritising the individual in their care and journey, this approach not only acknowledges their independence, values, and preferences but also upholds their essential involvement in decision-making and setting objectives.

Person-centred care transforms traditional healthcare by advocating for a partnership between healthcare professionals and individuals. This partnership is based on cooperation, joint decision-making, and reciprocal comprehension. Healthcare professionals play a crucial part in empowering individuals with the information and abilities to actively participate in and oversee their health. This cooperative method enables individuals to contribute significantly to decisions regarding their treatment and care routes, enhancing their overall experience and results.

Person-centred care needs to be integrated across all healthcare processes. This involves assessing individual preferences and incorporating these preferences into the formulation of care goals and plans. A pivotal step for healthcare providers in implementing person-centred care is gaining a profound grasp of methods to deliver quality care, and aligning care services with established regulatory frameworks, such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – an independent authority overseeing health and social care standards.

Person-Centred Care vs Patient-Centred Care

Person-centred care and patient-centred care, despite sharing similar terminology, convey different meanings and impacts. Person-centred care, often associated with concepts like user-centred care, personalised care, and relationship-centred care, focuses on deeply grasping an individual’s preferences, wellness, and wider social circumstances. This approach highlights a holistic point of view, with the individual being central to decision-making processes.

In contrast, patient-centred care is more narrowly focused on the individual seeking care, often referred to as the patient. It involves tailoring healthcare to the individual’s needs and expectations, improving the clinical encounter while potentially neglecting the broader social and community aspects of health.

In essence, the idea of person-centred care, or people-centred care, goes beyond this. It advocates for the collaborative involvement of individuals, families, caregivers, communities, and society as a whole. The contributions of each participant are given equal importance, ensuring a cohesive approach to providing healthcare services. By using the terms “people” or “person” rather than “patient,” this approach underscores the multifaceted nature of individuals, avoiding the simplification of their medical conditions and acknowledging their distinct preferences, requirements, and capabilities.

Person-Centred Approach in Health and Social Care

Implementing a person-centred approach in health and social care involves transformative shifts in service delivery, roles, and relationships among stakeholders, including healthcare professionals and individuals. Since person-centred care has emerged in many services and sectors, such as health, social care, local authorities, and housing, its implementation requires intensive effort from different stakeholders. The process involves cultivating a workforce and community with the behaviours, skills, and competencies essential for promoting health and wellbeing outcomes and practising person-centred approaches.

Studies indicate that the collaborative approach advocated by the person-centred approach enhances individual outcomes and proves cost-effective for healthcare systems. Implementing a person-centred approach requires an educational and training structure that outlines its core principles and provides direction for cultivating and sustaining a workforce committed to this methodology.

Why Is Person-Centred Care So Important?

Person-centred care is highly important for both individuals and healthcare professionals. From the individual’s perspective, this approach fosters a sense of comfort and confidence in the healthcare service, building mutual respect and trust between individuals and healthcare professionals. By maintaining individuals’ dignity and independence, person-centred care meets their emotional, social, and practical needs and actively empowers them to participate in decisions about their care and treatment. This engagement improves their sense of independence, raises their satisfaction with care, and encourages them to adopt positive health behaviours, resulting in better health outcomes.

Viewed through a healthcare lens, person-centred care enhances services by promoting a deeper comprehension of an individual’s condition and treatment strategies. This helps reduce unnecessary expenses and the excessive reliance on emergency services, directing valuable resources and services to those genuinely in need. Adopting a person-centred approach enhances overall efficiency and boosts healthcare professionals’ morale, fulfilment, and job satisfaction. Ultimately, this transformation is reflected in delivering more efficient and compassionate care.

Person-Centred Care in Practice

Effectively implementing person-centred care throughout the entire healthcare system remains a significant hurdle. This transformative change necessitates restructuring services and roles to align with the fundamental principles of personalised care.

Efforts to promote person-centred care in healthcare encompass a wide range of initiatives. These attempts aim to motivate and offer practical advice to professionals committed to integrating person-centred care into their work. By promoting collaboration, involving individuals actively in their care process, and crafting customised care plans, healthcare systems can gradually transition to a model that recognises each person’s unique needs, thus enhancing the overall healthcare experience and leading to improved health outcomes.

Explore one of the Nurseline Community Services impact stories showcasing how we embrace person-centred care in practice.

Training Clinicians to Apply Person-Centred Approach

Training clinicians to apply a person-centred approach is vital to transforming healthcare practices and improving individual experiences. Implementing person-centred care demands a comprehensive behavioural shift within the workforce. Developing capabilities must be backed with supportive processes, systems, opportunities, and relevant incentives that motivate and engage healthcare professionals.

Nurseline Community Services has taken a comprehensive and structured approach to training its clinicians on person-centred care, ensuring that they understand and embody the principles of this approach in their daily work. Clinicians are educated on understanding person-centred values and putting them into practice in day-to-day interactions with individuals they support, particularly in upholding dignity and respect. Also, clinicians are guided on the importance of uncovering an individual’s history, preferences, and needs while incorporating them into care and support plans. Throughout the training, the emphasis remains on fostering individual identity, self-esteem, and emotional well-being.

By adopting this comprehensive training approach, Nurseline Community Services ensures its clinicians and nurses are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and mindset to provide truly person-centred care for the individuals they support.

Principles of Person-Centred Care

The principles of person-centred care include four key elements that collectively guide healthcare providers towards delivering holistic and individualised care. Those principles are the following:

Providing Dignity, Compassion, and Respect: By acknowledging that everyone possesses their own thoughts, feelings, opinions, and needs, healthcare professionals can empower individuals through collaboration and autonomy. This principle preserves dignity and encourages increased independence, treating individuals with compassion and empathy, leading to better outcomes aligned with their care plan.

Offering Coordinated Care: Coordinated care, support, or treatment ensures that the various components of an individual’s care journey align seamlessly. Effective communication among healthcare professionals, accurate care plans, and shared records facilitate an incorporated understanding of the individual’s requirements. Technology can be pivotal in digitising records and creating automated workflows, enabling efficient information sharing among the care team and promoting personalised care delivery.

Delivering Personalised Care: Personalisation lies at the core of person-centred care. Recognising that what works for one individual may not be suitable for another, healthcare providers need to tailor their services to the individual needs and preferences of each care recipient. This principle acknowledges the uniqueness of each individual’s circumstances, values, and goals.

Supporting Strengths and Abilities: Encouraging individuals to recognise, manage and develop their strengths and abilities is a cornerstone of person-centred care. By involving individuals in decision-making and enabling them to take actions to support themselves, healthcare providers foster independence and self-sufficiency.

Benefits of Person-Centred Care

Person-centred care benefits individuals, their families, and healthcare professionals. There are a range of benefits, including:

Flexibility: Care is uniquely tailored to individual preferences and needs, the one-size-fits-all approach of healthcare is replaced by a personalised strategy that considers every individual’s requirements and preferences.
Responsibility: Individuals actively participate in their care experience, increasing engagement and emotional investment in their well-being. Healthcare professionals feel responsible and empowered to ensure individuals receive positive outcomes and a better quality of life.
Autonomy: People engaged in health decisions tend to develop a greater awareness of their preferences and lifestyle choices. This awareness leads to healthier behaviours and an improved understanding of their well-being.
Alignment: Including individuals in decision-making ensures that their care plans align with their specific needs, creating a sense of ownership and ensuring their care is tailored to their unique circumstances.
Independence: Person-centred care increases independence and confidence, promoting a fulfilled life.

Adopting this approach also benefits healthcare professionals, including a sense of accomplishment and purpose. Witnessing how personalised strategies and their support positively affect individuals’ well-being and recovery boosts job satisfaction. Furthermore, shifting from a patient-centred to a person-centred outlook fosters improved relationships between caregivers and individuals, leading to a more positive and collaborative working environment.

The Potential for People-Centred Care to Transform Healthcare

Traditional healthcare models have often focused on diagnoses and treatments and, in many cases, overlooked the individuality of care recipients. On the other hand, people-centred care places the individual at the forefront, recognising their unique preferences, values, and needs. By embracing this approach, healthcare providers can establish stronger partnerships with individuals, improving health outcomes.

One of the significant aspects of people-centred care is its emphasis on shared decision-making. In this model, healthcare professionals collaborate closely with individuals, considering their perspectives and involving them in the decision-making process regarding their treatment plans. Healthcare professionals treat individuals with respect and dignity, ensuring that treatments are aligned with their goals and values.

Nurseline Community Services Promotes a Person-Centred Care Approach

Nurseline Community Services is committed to delivering person-centred care that recognises the unique needs of each individual. Our approach to developing treatment plans considers an individual’s ambitions, preferences, and needs.

The dedication of our clinicians empowers individuals to achieve positive outcomes, fostering them to lead lives of fulfilment and purpose within their communities. With our person-centred care, individuals are always treated with respect and dignity.

To learn more about our services and person-centred care, we invite you to visit our offices in Bristol, Birmingham, or Gloucester.