Therapeutic alliance: a concept for the childbearing season.
This analysis was conducted to describe the concept of therapeutic alliance and its appropriateness for health-care provider-client interactions during the childbearing season. The concept has been defined in other disciplines. A universal definition suggested a merging of efforts directed toward health. A simple and concise definition evolved, which is applicable to the childbearing season as well as to health-care encounters across the life span. This definition states: Therapeutic alliance is a process within a health-care provider-client interaction that is initiated by an identified need for positive client health-care behaviors, whereby both parties work together toward this goal with consideration of the client's current health status and developmental stage within the life span.
MARY ELLEN DOHERTY is an associate professor in the Department of Nursing at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. She has been a nurse-midwife and childbirth educator for more than 25 years.
Mary Ellen
ME
Doherty