phase, also, the nurse attempts to determine exactly what help is needed by the patient.
The second phase, the identification phase, is the process of developing a relationship between the nurse and the patient. In this phase, the nurse helps the patient to explore her or his feelings so that the patient can develop a better understanding of the problems he or she is confronting. Through this process, the patient may be able to reorient her or his feelings so that the positive aspects of the patient's personality may be strengthened. This phase is called the identification phase because the patient identifies with the nurse who is providing guidance and help to the patient.
The exploitation phase of the nurse-patient relationship is a time in which new goals for the patient are derived by the patient (with the guidance of the nurse), and in which the power in the nurse-patient relationship shifts from the nurse to the patient. The patient gains this power by deferring gratification during the period in which the new goals for the patient are being pursued and (hopefully) attained (Peplau, 1952, pp. 37-39).
The fourth and last phase of the nurse-patient relationship, the resolution phase, is one in which the patient frees herself or himself from a strong identification with the nurse. In the resolution phase, full power in the nurse-patient relationship has passed to the patient, who now controls her or his own actions. In this phase, also, the new goals that the patient derived in the identification phase are fully adopted by the patient, who discards her or his old goals (Peplau, 1952, pp. 39-41).
In progressing through the four phases of the nurse-patient relationship in the psychodynamic nursing model, the nurse must play six separate roles. The first of these roles is the role of the stranger. In this role, the nurse accords the patient the same courtesy that typically would be accorded by an individual to an...