The latest advances in medicine and technology are used to care for transplant recipients, yet many patients have psychosocial difficulties that technology alone cannot resolve. Although most healthcare professionals acknowledge the importance of the staff's role in working with patients to resolve psychosocial problems, little research has examined the nature of staff-patient relationships and the proven ability of good relationships to improve outcomes. The purposes of this paper are to profile psychosocial risk and its relationship to outcomes after heart transplantation, explore staff-patient interactions in dealing with psychosocial problems, and present a growth and development model that can be used as a theoretical base to establish a more therapeutic alliance with patients.
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