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With the recent spotlight on Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN), nurse educators are finding creative ways to integrate quality and safety concepts into the curriculum. This includes a strong focus on teaching patient-centered care to ensure safe quality care for patients and their families. Although there seems to be a sudden emphasis on providing patient-centered care as part of the QSEN movement to improve quality and safety, the concept of person-centered care has always been at the foundation of psychiatric nursing. Hildegard Peplau was the first nurse to emphasize not only caring for the illness but also caring for the person (Varcarolis & Halter, 2010 ). She identified a process by which nurses assist patients to make changes impacting physical and mental health. She is also credited with describing the stages of the nurse--patient relationship in which she suggested that a lack of self-awareness by the nurse had a negative influence on the development of the therapeutic relationship (Varcarolis & Halter, 2010 ).
To provide care that is patient centered, there should be demonstration of respect and compassion while listening to the patient (Preheim, Armstrong, & Barton, 2009 ). Accordingly, there must be recognition of the patient's preferences, values, and needs while including the patient as an active and full partner in his or her care (QSEN, n.d. ). Although this can be a challenge for nursing students working with any patient, it can be especially challenging when working with individuals with mental illness, who are often unable to clearly express their needs due to their illness or barriers related to stigma. Furthermore, family involvement and student anxiety may create additional challenges that impact the development of the therapeutic relationship.
Literature Review: Teaching Patient-Centered Care, Communication, and Simulation
Patient-centered care is defined by QSEN as "recognizing the patient as the source of control and full partner in providing compassionate and coordinated care based on respect for the patient's preferences, values, and needs" (QSEN, n.d. , Patient-Centered Care table). Students must collaborate with the patient to integrate patient values and preferences while providing care that respects individual differences. According to Preheim et al. (2009 ), the nurse must have self-awareness of how his or her own values...