Predictors of Caring in the Context of Relationship-Based Care

The caring connection between patients and health-care staff members is important to both patients and staff. This connection is amplified in organizations implementing Relationship-Based Care (RBC), a patient care delivery model that has relationships with self and others as its central concept. A secondary analysis of data from 542 health-care workers in a health-care system in the northeastern United States was performed to identify a profile of staff factors that predict a caring connection as perceived by staff. Specifically, staff self-care, clarity (of self, role, and system), dimensions of job satisfaction, and demographics were examined in relationship to caring for patients. The study demonstrated that constructs within RBC do relate to the creation of a caring connection between health-care staff members and patients, including caring for self, having a direct relationship with the patient using concepts of Primary Nursing, clarity of role, and being a direct care provider.