Caring for and about cancer patients: Identifying the meaning of the phenomenon ???caring??? through narratives
- 1 December 1999
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Cancer Nursing
- Vol. 22 (6), 414-420
- https://doi.org/10.1097/00002820-199912000-00003
Abstract
For several decades nurses have been using the terms "caring" and "nursing." Caring, considered to be a universal phenomenon, has been seen as a nursing term, including all aspects of delivering nursing care to patients. Ten registered nurses selected from hematologic, oncologic, and lung medicine wards were asked to narrate one situation in which they had been able to supply good caring and one situation wherein they had not been able to provide good caring for the patient. To identify the meaning of the caring phenomenon as experienced and expressed by nurses working with patients who have cancer, a qualitative analysis using phenomenologic hermeneutics was used. The narrated interviews, tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim, were analyzed, and a theme was interpreted: developing and maintaining a helping-trusting interpersonal relationship. Five subthemes also were identified: creating an interaction with the patient and the next of kin, acting to satisfy the needs of the patient and next of kin, feeling frustration in the role of caring, being affected by time aspects, and developing self and acquiring insight. It is in caring that nurses and patients connect with one another, are fulfilled, and experience growth. If they work actively with this perspective, nurses will feel fulfilled, not frustrated.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Stories of Physicians, Registered Nurses and Enrolled Nurses about Ethically Difficult Care Episodes in Surgical CareScandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 1995
- The concept of caring: a review of the literatureJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1995
- Clinical commentary: Promoting meaning in the lives of cancer survivorsSeminars in Oncology Nursing, 1995
- A view of the phenomenon of caring in nursing practiceJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1992
- Ethical reasoning in nurses' and physicians' stories about care episodesJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1992
- Two portraits of caring: a comparison of the artists, Leininger and WatsonJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1991
- Concepts of caring and caring as a conceptAdvances in Nursing Science, 1990
- The experience of caringJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1989
- Development of A Theoretically Adequate Description of CaringWestern Journal of Nursing Research, 1983
- A charter for caringJournal of Advanced Nursing, 1976