Savina O. Schoenhofer

The role of nursing leadership in creating caring environments in health care delivery systems.

Nurse administrators play a key role in articulating the uniqueness of nursing in complex, corporatized health systems. They also have the privileged opportunity to co-create with nurse colleagues an environment for practice that is perceived by all constituencies as caring. This article addresses how an explicit view of Nursing as Caring can serve as the foundation for the successful and substantive integration of caring. Practical strategies to enhance the organization as a caring environment are discussed.

Caring In Nursing: Analysis of Extant Theory

Caring in nursing as a substantive area of nursing science has been the focus of considerable scholarly effort. Based on the assumption that caring is the central concept in nursing and is uniquely known and expressed in nursing, this paper focuses on an analysis of major theo retical works related to the concept. Five categories of questions provide a framework for the analysis: ontological, anthropological, ontical, ep istemological, and pedagogical.

Transforming practice using a caring-based nursing model.

Todays health care environments are calling for new models of care delivery grounded in essential values. This article describes the results of a 2-year funded research project that intentionally grounded an acute care unit in the perspective of nursing as caring. Outcomes of care for patients, families, staff and the organization are described.

Choosing personhood: intentionality and the theory of nursing as caring.

Drawing on a story of a nursing situation for practical context, this article explores the meaning of intentionality within the theoretical context of Nursing as Caring. Mays definition of intentionality as the structure that gives meaning to experience is interwoven with the concepts of the theory of Nursing as Caring to explore the topic. Mayeroffs concepts of hope and commitment contribute to an understanding of intentionality in relation to Nursing as Caring. The major thesis of this article, that intentionality is consistently choosing personhood as a way of life and the aim of nursing, is demonstrated in the practice situation.

Discovering the Value of Nursing in High-Technology Environments: Outcomes Revisited

&NA; The article argues that the current approach to specifying outcomes of nursing care in high‐technology environments obscures rather than illuminates nursings contributions to health care. Two nursing situations are used to illustrate a reframing of the idea of outcomes from the perspective and language of nursing as caring. Outcomes of nursing care are reconceptualized as value experienced within the nursing situation.

Aesthetic Knowing Grounded in an Explicit Conception of Nursing

This article presents an expanded perspective of aesthetic knowing in nursing grounded in the theory of nursing as caring. The authors highlight Carpers contributions to nursing, applauding the value of her work. However, a major limitation of Carpers work on aesthetic knowing is the failure to provide an explicit conception of nursing to guide the search for patterns and structure of nursing knowledge, thus the limited development of the aesthetic pattern of knowing in nursing. The authors propose that aesthetic knowing in nursing is the creating experience in the nursing situation, expression of the experience, and appreciation of it through encounter.

Living Caring in Practice: The Transformative Power of the Theory of Nursing as Caring

The purpose of this paper is to describe nursing as caring as a model for transforming practice. The purpose is achieved through presentation and analysis of nursing situations offered by a staff nurse in an Emergency Sewices Department and the nurse director of that department. The analysis of these situations of caring between nurse and nursed illuminates the power of theory-based practice focused on enhancing living grounded in caring.

Philosophical Underpinnings of an Emergent Methodology for Nursing as Caring Inquiry

Two research approaches congruent with the theory of nursing as caring are described: group interpretive phenomenology and nursing as caring research as praxis. The idea of praxis and the theory of communicative action are explored for congruence as philosophical underpinnings of a possible eventual methodology for developing knowledge of nursing as caring.

The Value of Caring Experienced in Nursing

Outcomes of caring in nursing are key indicators of the personal and social value of nursing. Trends in health care economics make it imperative that nurses specify the value added to health care situations from nursing. Current efforts to achieve this goal have resulted in language that fails to communicate the richness of caring in nursing. This research-based paper proposes a framework and approach to the specification of outcomes of caring in nursing, reconceptualized as the value experienced in a nursing situation.