Background: The patient is observed to acquire a passive role and the nurse an expert role with a maternalistic attitude. This relationship among others determines the capacity for autonomy in the decision making of patients.
Objectives: The aim of this study is to analyse the nurse-patient relationship and explore their implications for clinical practice, the impact on quality of care, and the decision-making capacity of patients.
Design: A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted.
Settings and participants: Thirteen in-depth interviews with nurses and 61,484 nursing records from internal medicine and specialties departments in a general hospital from 2015-2016.
Methods: A discourse analysis and triangulation for these sources were conducted.
Results: The category elaborated from nursing records was defined according to the following codes: Good Patient, Bad patient, and Social Problem. Analysis of the interviews resulted in a category defined as Patient as a passive object.
Discussion: A good nurse-patient relationship reduces the days of hospital stay and improves the quality and satisfaction of both. However, in contrast, the good relationship is conditioned by the patient's submissive role.
Conclusion: An equal distribution of power allows decisions about health and disease processes to be acquired by patients, autonomously, with the advice of professionals. The nurse-patient relationship should not pursue the change in values and customs of the patient, but position the professional as a witness of the experience of the health and illness process in the patient and family.
Keywords: decision making; nurse-patient relationship; nurse’s role; personal autonomy; quality of health care.