PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING CARING IN A NURSE-CLIENT INTERACTION.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 260
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the meaning (essential structure) of the experience of being caring in a nurse-client interaction from the perspective of the caring nurse.

A purposive sample of twenty caring nurses was interviewed and the transcribed texts of their tape-recorded descriptions of caring and non-caring interactions with clients were analyzed. Colaizzi's method of phenomenological analysis was used to develop themes common to all descriptions of caring and non-caring nurse-client interactions. Also developed were exhaustive descriptions of a caring and non-caring interaction as they were experienced by the caring nurse.

Four themes emerged for the caring interaction: (1) the client's existential presence; (2) nurse-client/family encounter; (3) the nurse's availability; (4) consequences for the nurse and client. Four themes emerged for the non-caring interaction: (1) the client's existential presence; (2) nurse-client/family alienation; (3) the nurse's unavailability; (4) consequences for the nurse and client.

The results of this study indicate that caring interactions benefit nurses and clients in physical and psychological ways and that caring interactions may be affected by the environment in which nurses practice and by the kind of knowledge the nurse possesses about the client.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-01, Section: B, page: 0073.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1987.

School code: 0227.