Related Experiment Videos
Professional nurse caring as perceived by critically ill patients: a phenomenologic study
S N Burfitt1, D S Greiner, L J Miers
1University of Alabama School of Nursing, Birmingham 35294-1210.
Summary
Caring in critical care involves attentive, vigilant nursing actions that promote healing. This mutual process, incorporating patient and nurse attributes, leads to positive patient outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Nursing Science
- Patient Care Research
- Qualitative Health Research
Background:
- Critical care patients are an understudied population in caring literature.
- Caring behaviors are crucial for critically ill individuals.
- Understanding patient perceptions of care is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore patients' views on caring behaviors by nurses in a critical care unit.
- To understand the meaning of these caring behaviors to patients.
Main Methods:
- Phenomenological descriptive study.
- In-depth interviews with 13 critical care patients.
- Verbatim transcription and analysis of patient responses.
Main Results:
- Caring in critical care is defined as attentive, vigilant nursing behavior.
- This includes technical skill, basic care, nurturance, and lifesaving actions.
- Mutuality, involving patient, nurse, and family attributes, is central to the caring process.
Conclusions:
- Caring is a mutual process, uniting intentions for a shared experience.
- This shared experience facilitates healing, which may otherwise be difficult to achieve.