Progressing the relationship with patients: an overview

Empowering or disempowering? It is important to understand that empowerment is not something we can do to others. The concept of empowerment derives from person-centred philosophy, where one of many beliefs of the personcentred practitioner is that human nature is essentially constructive and not destructive (Bozarth et al, 1986) and that so-called destructive behaviour may arise from disempowering people, relationships and events (Brown, 2001). An understanding of the concept of partnership is important. A recent concept analysis (Gallant et al, 2002) describes key attributes to successful partnership. These include: l Beginning with the agreement to partner l Fostering the patient’s identification of his/her strengths through listening The concept of empowerment in diabetes care was first introduced by Funnell and colleagues in 1991. They stated that: