Conscious Efforts Maintain the Relationship
Relationships in home-based nursing care did not occur
by itself and it required conscious efforts for both
establishing and maintaining a working relationship. The
effort meant, among other things, to prioritize the building
and maintenance of relationships by nurses. An example was
when nurses experienced during home visits lack of contact
or the contact was not experienced as good, they made the
effort to visit the person’s home several times since the
experience was that repeated contacts could facilitate and
maintain a relationship. Usually it took time to reach a level
where confiding occurred and patience was often necessary
to develop the relationship. To make an effort to show
humility, empathy, respect and treat the person well seemed
to be the prerequisites for a good working relationship in
home-based nursing care.