Meaning: A Study Of Nurse Caring
A Study of Nurse Caring
Megan McMahon
University of Illinois at Chicago
A Study of Nurse Caring
Although there are many common themes in both nursing practice and nursing theory, the concept of caring in nursing may be the most central theme of them all. In nursing, the one word ‘caring’ can both refer to the verb meaning ‘the action of carrying out the interventions and needs of a patient’, or the emotion or feeling of empathy and/or the altruism that puts the patient’s best interests first. Examples of three different articles were compared and contrasted, all studying the concept of caring in nursing with different approaches to understand this concept more deeply, and find both similar and differing themes in their conclusions. …show more content…
I, the oldest of five children, after originally wanting to “do my own thing” graduating with a non-medical bachelor’s degree, a lousy economy and a lack of feeling of purpose in my job motivated me to go back to school to become a nurse. I distinctly remember my youngest brother, then twelve, sitting me down with the air of a wizened old man, asking me seriously, “Now Megan, tell me; are you going into nursing for the money, or is your heart really in it?” Although I needed a better job, I was able to reassure him that beyond making a good living, I could not have entertained the thought of becoming a nurse if I didn’t have the prevailing desire to care for people as my motive. I really couldn’t laugh at his precocious question beyond this, since we were all-too familiar in my family with the jaded cynicism that starts to cloud the idyllic and altruistic intentions of the brand-new caregiver, hoping to care and make a difference. Now, as a practicing nurse and department head, I can daily recount my frustrations that put my strict time constraints at odds with my desire to really be present and show care. Like these study participants, I try to keep the idyllic expectations that I had as an aspiring nurse, while staying patient-focused, and showing ‘that little extra’ to let patients know that they are more of a person to me than the next item on my nursing to-do list. I identify this as the most significant way that I can practically show caring to my
Megan McMahon
University of Illinois at Chicago
A Study of Nurse Caring
Although there are many common themes in both nursing practice and nursing theory, the concept of caring in nursing may be the most central theme of them all. In nursing, the one word ‘caring’ can both refer to the verb meaning ‘the action of carrying out the interventions and needs of a patient’, or the emotion or feeling of empathy and/or the altruism that puts the patient’s best interests first. Examples of three different articles were compared and contrasted, all studying the concept of caring in nursing with different approaches to understand this concept more deeply, and find both similar and differing themes in their conclusions. …show more content…
I, the oldest of five children, after originally wanting to “do my own thing” graduating with a non-medical bachelor’s degree, a lousy economy and a lack of feeling of purpose in my job motivated me to go back to school to become a nurse. I distinctly remember my youngest brother, then twelve, sitting me down with the air of a wizened old man, asking me seriously, “Now Megan, tell me; are you going into nursing for the money, or is your heart really in it?” Although I needed a better job, I was able to reassure him that beyond making a good living, I could not have entertained the thought of becoming a nurse if I didn’t have the prevailing desire to care for people as my motive. I really couldn’t laugh at his precocious question beyond this, since we were all-too familiar in my family with the jaded cynicism that starts to cloud the idyllic and altruistic intentions of the brand-new caregiver, hoping to care and make a difference. Now, as a practicing nurse and department head, I can daily recount my frustrations that put my strict time constraints at odds with my desire to really be present and show care. Like these study participants, I try to keep the idyllic expectations that I had as an aspiring nurse, while staying patient-focused, and showing ‘that little extra’ to let patients know that they are more of a person to me than the next item on my nursing to-do list. I identify this as the most significant way that I can practically show caring to my