ABSTRACT
The article argues that the current approach to specifying outcomes of nursing care in high-technology environments obscures rather than illuminates nursing's contributions to health care. Two nursing situations are used to illustrate a reframing of the idea of outcomes from the perspective and language of nursing as caring. Outcomes of nursing care are reconceptualized as value experienced within the nursing situation.
Subject(s)
Empathy , Medical Laboratory Science , Models, Nursing , Nurse-Patient Relations , Nursing Care/standards , Outcome Assessment, Health Care , Attitude to Health , Humans , Nursing Care/psychology , Nursing TheoryABSTRACT
Although the fundamental values of primary care are congruent with basic values of nursing, nursing practice in the context of primary care is not always conceptualized as nursing. This article explores themes of primary care and nursing and offers a reconceptualization of primary care as nursing. An example of primary care as nursing practiced in a Philippine village is presented.
Subject(s)
Models, Nursing , Models, Theoretical , Nursing , Primary Health Care , Child , Community-Institutional Relations , Humans , Male , Nursing Theory , Philippines , Power, Psychological , Schools, NursingABSTRACT
Einstein's Dreams is a fictional account of the various timeworlds Einstein imagined in his early theorizing. Possible futures for nursing are examined from the perspective of these various timeworlds, in relation to present concerns for nursing's viability and evolution. These concerns include distance from the heart of nursing, unarticulated working conceptions of nursing, and methods of inquiry and practice that are not congruent with nursing's values. Time warp conditions frame the analysis of the impact of these concerns, and new visions are offered.
Subject(s)
Biophysics , Nursing Theory , Nursing/trends , Spatial Behavior , Time Perception , Biophysical Phenomena , Forecasting , HumansABSTRACT
This article presents an expanded perspective of aesthetic knowing in nursing grounded in the theory of nursing as caring. The authors highlight Carper's contributions to nursing, applauding the value of her work. However, a major limitation of Carper's work on aesthetic knowing is the failure to provide an explicit conception of nursing to guide the search for patterns and structure of nursing knowledge, thus the limited development of the aesthetic pattern of knowing in nursing. The authors propose that aesthetic knowing in nursing is the creating experience in the nursing situation, expression of the experience, and appreciation of it through encounter.
Subject(s)
Anesthetics , Cognition , Nursing Methodology Research , Nursing Theory , Empathy , Female , Humans , Nurse-Patient RelationsSubject(s)
Helping Behavior , Nursing Care , Nursing Theory , Humans , Nurse-Patient Relations , Nursing ProcessABSTRACT
This paper proposes the use of story as a method of organizing and communicating nursing knowledge which assures groundedness in the ontology of nursing. The nursing situation is viewed as the unit of nursing knowledge, and the nursing story is the re-creation or representation of that situation.
Subject(s)
Communication , Education, Nursing , Nursing Care , Humans , Nurse-Patient RelationsABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to describe selected qualitative and quantitative factors present in nursing situations involving affectional touch. Natural field observation of 30 nurse-patient dyads in three hospital critical care units yielded frequency data in four categories: form of affectional touch, Weiss' qualitative factors, accompaniments, and stimulus. Frequencies of affectional touch and of proximity without touch were also obtained. Modal instances of affectional touch in a 1-hour period were 2, with a range of 0 to 17. Form of affectional touch most frequently used was sustained stationary, with stroking least frequent. The majority of instances of affectional touch were of short duration and low intensity, with visible reaction indicating comfort in approximately two thirds of the instances. Almost three fourths of the instances were accompanied by visual regard and two thirds by vocalization. Patient stimulus before affectional touch was indirect in 52% of the instances and unidentified in another 32%. This study provides clear evidence that, although the use of touch as a nursing comfort measure is widely advocated, affectional touch is infrequent. These results provide information useful to the further development of prescriptive theory for affectional touch in nursing practice situations.
