Partnering in care

Over time, we have seen a rise in person-centred approaches to care in health across many countries. Person-centred approaches are also known as person-centredness, patient-centredness, patient-centred care and consumer-centred care (hereafter referred to as person-centred care). Depending on the context, these terms have slightly different meanings, but each shares a similar feature: putting patients/persons/clients first within systems of care and making the person a central and enabling agent in this system.

Person-centred care is often explained in a rather simplistic way; that is, located as the opposite to task-oriented, disease-focused, system-centred, biomedical model, or paternalistic care. However, the notion of person-centred care is not new; in fact, nearly seven decades ago the importance of person-centred care was emphasised in nursing literature, as US nurse academic Leino aptly stated:

It is generally agreed that an effective nursing team can plan and provide care that is patient-centred rather than job centred. In planning patient-centred care, a written, individualised nursing care plan for each patient is an essential tool. Because the individual patient’s specific needs are the point of departure for the functioning of nursing teams, these nursing care plans are the crux of the team’s activities ( Leino 1952 :324).
While person-centred care is one of the most widely recommended principles of care, and is also the most desired approach from those who receive care, it remains poorly operationalised and practised in our systems of care ( Kitson et al 2013 ; Stewart 2001 ). The term ‘person-centredness’ appears to be self-explanatory, and makes sense in our modern society where community expectations of healthcare are increasing. People are becoming more knowledgeable and outspoken about their health and rights as healthcare consumers, and have expectations for family members and significant others to be part of their healthcare team. What then is person-centred care? What are the key elements of person-centred care? What does it mean to healthcare service providers and healthcare practitioners?

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Australia.