What is the nature of nurse practitioners' lived experiences interacting with patients?

To illuminate the nature of the lived experiences of nurse practitioners (NPs) interacting with patients, to discover the essential meanings of those lived experiences, and to articulate a structure gleaned from the essential meanings.

Six NPs provided concrete descriptions of their experiences interacting with patients. Data were collected and analyzed using a descriptive, phenomenological method of inquiry.

The data revealed eight essential meanings for interacting with patients: openness, connection, concern, respect, reciprocity, competence, time, and professional identity. The nature of NPs' lived experiences interacting with patients is an authentic attending to health-related concerns, originating and enduring within the context of an intersubjective relationship. Through the dialogues that evolve within the context of intersubjective relationships, both NPs and patients become more as persons, amenable to understanding the meanings each has assigned to his or her life-world situations, regardless of the outcomes of any health-related interventions.

The NPs in this study valued the relationships that ensued from their interactions with patients. From these relationships they derived both personal and professional growth. Intersubjective relating is the "art of nursing" for the participants in this study.