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- Title
Nursing as a caring practice from a phenomenological perspective.
- Authors
Spichiger, Elisabeth; Wallhagen, Margaret I.; Benner, Patricia
- Abstract
Nursing is frequently described as a caring practice. What this concept means may be less clear. This paper considers nursing as a caring practice in three steps. First, the concept of practice based on Taylor's and MacIntyre's philosophical definitions of the term is described. Secondly, numerous notions of caring are presented; the call from some nurse researchers for quantification of the concept and why this is problematic is discussed; and an exposition of caring from a phenomenological perspective is provided. Finally, the notions of practice and caring are joined, and the concept of a caring practice is presented. Nursing as a public caring practice is illustrated with examples from an interpretive phenomenological study. In conclusion, it is claimed that a phenomenological view of caring combined with a comprehensive definition of practice is well suited to nursing, and allows for a description of nurses’ caring practices from both a nursing and patient perspective.
- Subjects
NURSING practice; SICK people; MEDICAL care; NURSE-patient relationships; PERSPECTIVE (Philosophy); PHENOMENOLOGY; NURSING research
- Publication
Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 2005, Vol 19, Issue 4, p303
- ISSN
0283-9318
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1471-6712.2005.00350.x