Research Group Relational Care
Good care is patient-centred. However, a lot still goes wrong in the mutual coordination between healthcare professional and patient. The Research Group Relational Care studies how to improve relationships in healthcare.
Everyone wants good care for themselves and their loved ones. Care that meets personal needs. Care in which the patient and the healthcare professional pay attention to each other, coordinate and make an effort to understand each other. From a valuable relationship, this ‘person-centred care’ can contribute to the recovery process and good care.
The Research Group Relational Care is committed to promoting person-centred care. To provide person-centred care, both the relationship of the healthcare professional with the patient and their social network, as well as the relationship of the healthcare professional with other healthcare and welfare professionals are subjects of discussion. The research group wants to study how caregivers can listen to and coordinate with the patient so they can understand well what kind of support the patient needs. Coordination takes place throughout the entire care process, not just during the initial examination. Seeing the other person again and again, and coordinating again, is important in order to achieve appropriate support or treatment.
Healthcare professionals encounter many different patients, each with their own story and background. What suits this patient best? How do I find out what this patient needs? How do I want to enter into a relationship with this patient? The Research Group Relational Care will focus on these practical questions of healthcare professionals. To better understand the fundamental meaning of the relational in healthcare and to put it more broadly on the agenda, the research group collaborates with a range of healthcare professionals, care institutions, designers and companies, with a natural connection of the research group to education.
Team
Tsjitske Haanstra
Natalie Janse
Management assistant
Matthijs Fleurke
Natasja van Lobenstein
Peter Renden
Astrid Stift
Loes Verdoes
Anita Ham
Management assistant
Natalie Janse
Natasja van Lobenstein
Peter Renden
Loes Verdoes
Anita Ham
About the professor
dr. Yvonne van Zaalen
y.vanzaalen@hhs.nl
Projects
Assistive technology for longer independent living (AW Technology for Home)
Assistive devices are of great importance in supporting and improving the users' independence, quality of life and participation in society. With the right aids, people who experience limitations in daily life can also live independently at home for longer. They are also needed to meet the growing demand for care. By using aids, a lot of care can take place in the home situation. The Academic Workshop: Technology for Home* will conduct research that will help to use aids intelligently and effectively in the home situation.
Motoric learning in care
During their internships, Skin Therapy and Nursing students find that vocational education at universities of applied sciences does not prepare them adequately for practice. The practical trainers from the care institutions also give similar feedback. If we analyse healthcare education, we can understand these concerns. Prospective care workers are trained more as protocol followers than as sharp, thoughtful care providers. This must and can be done differently.
Creating excellent patient care
The healthcare sector is constantly changing. With the increase in complexity of care issues, the changes in patient expectations and the technological developments of care innovations in healthcare, it is necessary for care providers to be able to continuously interact with other care professionals, empathise with the patient and their situation and provide the best possible care.
Family care app: Hello 24/7
The number of users of WMO facilities in the Municipality of The Hague is expected to reach record levels in the coming years. In the current situation, those in need of help and/or family carers often report to a WMO office too late, and expensive assistance is then often unavoidable. In addition, only a small proportion of family carers are currently in the municipality's sight; young, student and working family carers in particular are not.