Nurses must collaborate effectively with patients to find treatment methods that are congruent with ...

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Nurses must collaborate effectively with patients to find treatment methods that are congruent with the patients' belief systems and that promote healthy outcomes. This approach requires excellent assessment skills and a willingness to listen carefully to determine how patients' personal beliefs impact their health beliefs. Incorporating patient values and beliefs into a plan of care requires that patients and their families or primary caregivers be actively involved in establishing goals and outcome criteria. As nurses learn about their discipline, their paradigm (or worldview) gradually changes to one based on a body of knowledge that focuses on scientific principles and dismisses as superstition other explanations for the presence of disease or illness. Research shows that the beliefs of nurses and other health care workers are equally important factors in determining how patients are treated.