Aspects of caring in Australian nursing

In January 1998 an article appeared in Collegian that examined the contested workplace between degreed and non-degreed nurses and reported that many non-degree nurses think that study at tertiary level symbolises that caring has gone out of nursing. Around the same time in Western Australia a political argument was put forward that voiced similar views about tertiary-educated nurses. In order to illustrate that caring is central to nursing practice, this article presents some findings derived from a larger phenomenological study. Despite the fact that descriptions of caring were not sought in this study, the data included many descriptions of health-focused care that were undeniably caring in nature. Caring showed in the descriptions of health-focused care as a preoccupation, an almost total involvement for the nurses in the task at hand, even if only for a limited period of time. It involved a considerable investment of self on the part of the nurse and a lack of comfort with self because of feelings of responsibility for another. Caring involved the act of taking another's wellbeing temporarily into the nurse's domain and the giving of devoted attention to another. It required the nurse to engage in rapport building so that she or he might support the other with consideration and respect and be concerned about the dignity of the other. This article explores the literature on caring in relation to these data in an attempt to generate ongoing discussion and further research about the nature of caring in Australian nursing so that doubts about the existence of caring in nursing may be put to rest.