A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF PATIENTS' EXPERIENCES OF THE NURSE'S PRESENCE.
Contributors: University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 219
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Mental Health.
Description: The phenomenon of interest in this study is the nurse's presence, a nascent phenomenon of concern to nursing which had been identified as significant, but not fully described, in nursing literature. Sixteen patients over the age of eighteen years who were involved in inpatient and outpatient mental health programs of a rural midwestern hospital participated in the study. Guided by a modification of Parse's research methodology, this phenomenologically-based study generated a structure of meaning of the lived experience of the nurse's presence: The nurse's presence is experienced as enveloping comfort in the midst of discomfort that transcends time and space. Presence affirms worth as the nurse heeds the call from the other and invites connection through the wellspring of love and authentic being. In this experience the patient glimpses possibilities which are life-transforming. Interpreted through Parse's theory of human becoming practice methodology and Watson's theory of human care, this cocreated meaning reflects and further explicates true presence as a foundation for Parse's practice methodology as well as other practice approaches.

This investigation describes the meaningfulness of patients' experiences of human relating that are significant for nursing practice, yet not committed to language. Here, a new view of human relating is revealed. This view provides a contextual perspective of the aesthetics of human relating in the nurse-patient encounter which is holistic, rather than compartmentalized. Furthermore, it explicates that the nurse's presence surfaces from love and authentic being and is experienced as life transforming. This investigation supports that knowledge of the lived experience of the nurses' presence is foundational, preeminent, and central to caring and healing.

This study contributes to an understanding of caring processes and the art of nursing. It further explicates the phenomenon of presence from the perspective of Parse's theory of human becoming. Implications are offered for nursing theory development, research, practice, and education. Further direction related to inquiry is recommended.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-08, Section: B, page: 4078.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1993.

School code: 0831.