Befriending the family: an exploration of a nurse-client relationship |
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Authors: | Sarah Bignold MSc BSc Alan Cribb PhD Stephen J. Ball PhD |
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Affiliation: | Centre for Educational Studies, King's College London, London, UK |
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Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between one group of nurses (specialist paediatric oncology nurses, or ‘SPONs’) and the families for whom they care. It draws upon a recent research review of their role in linking hospital and home care for children with cancer, and it argues that whereas this relationship often contains elements of friendship, it is not friendship in the conventional sense of the term, but is perhaps better characterized as a relationship of befriending. Befriending leads to the diminution of formal professional-client barriers and, in some cases, to a close and reciprocal relationship between SPONs and their clients. Befriending facilitates partnerships in care between SPONs and families, but also increases the demands of emotional labour for SPONs. Finally, some questions are raised about the appropriateness of the role of befriending in the nurse-client relationship. |
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Keywords: | children friendship nursing partnership |
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