Meaning of "care" for nurses who look after ill patients with cord injury

Abstract

The study aim was to understand what is the meaning of 'care' for nurses who look after ill patients with spinal cord injury in hospital. It is a qualitative research achieved in three hospitals, Brazilian, Spanish and Portuguese. 30 male and female nurses in charge of Medual Units were involved. 15 Brazilians, 5 Spaniards and 10 Portuguese. Data collection was gathered in 2003, 2006 and 2007, by means of structured interviews, after the signing of due terms of free Acknowledge and Consent. The main query was: What is care?. Answers revealed three different thematic categories: Care: actions taken according to nurse basic human needs; Care: educational actions; and Care: attitudes and care behaviours. The study suggests there are many coincidences in meaning for caring the so called ill patients involved (cord injury lesions), between Spanish and Portuguese nurses, towards Watson's personal meaning. The outcome is that nurses understand that 'care' is the main point in the process or 'caring', being this perceived as nurses skillfulness to grasp the most important subjective feature of the patient. To get a proper relationship between nurse and patient demands from the latter to experience, imagine and feel the closest to the patient. Thus, we feel transpersonal care is part of inter link to care these type of ill patients.

Keywords

• Cuidado
• Teoría de enfermería
• Comprensión del significado
• Lesión medular
• Watson, Jean