ABSTRACT
Hermeneutic text interpretation is discussed in this paper as a possible way of releasing nurses' knowledge, in order to develop a deeper understanding of professional caring. The text is a nurse's story, which has been gathered by means of the critical incident technique. The intention is to elicit the knowledge of professional caring in the stories and the language of caring science, which is concealed in a nurse's reality. Hermeneutic text interpretation through reading a text and having a dialogue with the nurse's reality will give a voice and a language to silent knowledge.
Subject(s)
Empathy , Nurse-Patient Relations , Perioperative Nursing/methods , Surgical Procedures, Operative/psychology , Adult , Female , Humans , Philosophy, Nursing , Surgical Procedures, Operative/nursingABSTRACT
The aim of the study was to gain a better insight into perioperative nurses' experience in a value conflict that has arisen in the perioperative caring environment and how they deal with it. In order to obtain as full and objective a picture as possible the critical incident technique was chosen. Perioperative nurses were asked to write down stories about value conflicts which they have experienced in the perioperative caring environment. When interpreting the textual content of the stories the aim has been to understand the meaning of nurses' experiences and how the nurses act in a value conflict situation. A value conflict is something that nurses have become part of against their own will. They are prevented from giving the good care they want to give, they are in conflict with themselves and have a bad conscience, and they feel guilt and shame for not having prevented the value conflict. The nurse who is involved in a value conflict aims, for the sake of the patient, to be a professional caring nurse. The nurse chooses to be the patient's neighbour, the one who suffers along with the patient and represents the patient's cry for help.
Subject(s)
Conflict, Psychological , Ethics, Nursing , Interprofessional Relations , Nurse Anesthetists/psychology , Nursing Staff, Hospital/psychology , Operating Room Nursing , Attitude of Health Personnel , Empathy , Humans , Nursing Methodology Research , Patient AdvocacyABSTRACT
This article describes the nature of ethical dilemmas in perioperative nursing practice. Using the Critical Incident Technique, common ethical dilemmas experienced by perioperative nurses are explored. The aim of the study was to elicit the ethical dilemmas that arise in perioperative nurses' practice. The study has a descriptive design and the data are critical incidents described by 48 anaesthetic nurses and 76 operating theatre nurses. An analysis of the critical incidents gave four domains of ethical dilemmas: those arising as value conflicts in the intraoperative phase of surgery; those emanating from the patient's right of self-determination; those arising in caring for patients; and those resulting from the allocation of scarce resources and the demands of increased effectiveness.