Critical care nurses' lived experiences of caring

OBJECTIVE: To formulate the fundamental structure of caring as lived by Critic DESIGN: Colaizzi's phenomenological research method and Diekelmann's dialogue technique were applied. SETTING: The home of each nurse constituted the setting for the interview. The nurses were employed in critical care units in six large metropolitan hospitals in the Southwest. SAMPLE: The availability sample consisted of 15 female critical care registered nurses. The nurses' mean age was 35 years. The mean number of years in critical care nursing was 4.7. One nurse was Asian, one was Hispanic, and 13 were Caucasian. RESULTS: Caring was composed of affective, cognitive, action, and outcome subprocesses. The caring process originated in the nurse's feelings and knowledge, and moved the nurse to competent actions that contributed to patient, family, and nurse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding of the process of caring was strengthened by the findings. The decision process used by nurses would benefit from further examination for the presence of the affective and nurse outcome subprocesses.