The meaning of being a perioperative nurse

The purpose of this study is to describe the meaning of being a perioperative nurse within the contexts of the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural forces that influence perioperative nursing practice. A theory of communicative action provided the framework for this philosophical inquiry. The researcher conducted one-time, in-depth interviews with six expert perioperative nurses selected from three practice settings in the northeastern United States. These interviews resulted in the text that the researcher analyzed based on the principles of critical hermeneutics, and four constitutive patterns were identified. The meaning of being a perioperative nurse for these nurses was identified as a struggle to make sense of their existence in the OR.