Barriers to Forming Effective Family Relationships

Introduction

First of all, it is important to acknowledge that family is an imperative element in the life

of a patient. For a patient to have an easy time recovering, their families need to be cooperative

and present at any given time (Duque-Ortiz, 2020). This allows the patient to have peace of mind

because they feel the love that comes from family and at the same time the presence of family

gives them a sense of belonging. In that case, there needs to be a healthy relationship between

the family and the nurses in charge of the patient and also the family and the patient. However,

sometimes there are incidences where there is a poor relationship between these parties and in

this paper, we look at some of the barriers hindering the formation of effective family

relationships in a medical setup.

Barriers

Principles of professional practice- some medical practices and units prohibit or restrict

the involvement of family members. For example, the ICU unit does not allow the presence of

family, or even if they are allowed their stay time is limited. Such restrictions and limitations

disrupt the nurse-family relationship because the family members feel they are being denied the

right to participate in the treatment of their patient (Shirazi, 2015). At some point also, the family

wants to be updated on the progress of their patient and you find that they want to engage the

nurses at any given time. This may reach a point where they become irritant to the nurse since

they are demanding more time from the nurse and when the nurse does not seem to give them

that time, their relationship is broken.