Nursing Theory

Research on touch therapies is still in the early stages of development. Studies of Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch, and Reiki are quite promising; however, at this point, they can only suggest that these healing modalities have efficacy in reducing anxiety; improving muscle relaxation; aiding in stress reduction, relaxation, and sense of well-being; promoting wound healing; and reducing pain. The multidimensional aspects of healing inherent in patient care continue to be expanded and facilitated by our understanding and application of energy therapies.

Research on touch therapies is still in the early stages of development. Studies of Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch, and Reiki are quite promising; however, at this point, they can only suggest that these healing modalities have efficacy in reducing anxiety; improving muscle relaxation; aiding in stress reduction, relaxation, and sense of well-being; promoting wound healing; and reducing pain. The multidimensional aspects of healing inherent in patient care continue to be expanded and facilitated by our understanding and application of energy therapies.

After some exploration of caring as a socio-historical construct, the author examines the changing conception of caring in nursing between Florence Nightingale's day and our own. The place of the older and emergent meanings in the work of some of the recognized nursing theorists is critically examined. A distinction is drawn between a science for caring and a science of caring and some of the problems of conceptualizing and developing a science of caring are explored.

Phenomenological interviews with 23 nurses and more than 200 hours of participant observation on units of one cancer hospital were conducted to obtain a better understanding of how nurses caring for patients with cancer view their work. When asked to discuss a "critical incident" that captures the essence of oncology nursing for them, most nurses described acute physiologic emergencies. A few nurses described psychosocial needs and explained how they had helped or were unable to help patients and families deal with these needs.

This paper aims to explore the meaning of spirituality in relation to nursing care using concept synthesis. Walker and Avant give three ways in which concept synthesis can occur: discovering new dimensions to old concepts, searching for similarities and discrepancies among sets of related concepts, and observing previously undescribed phenomena. It is the first two of these methods which have been used here.

Parse's research method was used to investigate the meaning of serenity for survivors of a life-threatening illness or traumatic event. Ten survivors of cancer told their stories of the meaning of serenity as they had lived it in their lives. Descriptions were aided by photographs chosen by each participant to represent the meaning of serenity for them. The structure of serenity was generated through the extraction-synthesis process.

The purpose of this research was to uncover the meaning of caring for an elderly relative. Nine middle-aged and elderly people volunteered to take part in audiorecorded interviews to describe their experience of caring for a loved one. The following structural definition emerged from the study: The meaning of caring for an elderly relative is surfacing poignant remembering while doggedly continuing with nurturant giving and confirmatory receiving, as swells of enjoyment merge with tides of sorrow amid uplifting togetherness and valleys of aloneness.

The aim of this study was to explore the ethical foundations for a caring The analysis is based on the ethics of Paul Ricoeur and deals with questions such as what kind of person the nurse ought to be and how she or he engages in caring conversations with suffering others. According to Ricoeur, ethics (the aim of an accomplished life) has primacy over morality (the articulation of aims in norms). At the ethical level, self-esteem and autonomy were shown to be essential for a person (nurse) to act with respect and responsibility.

This manuscript offers a new view of old and timeless values: the essential ethic of love, informed by contemporary European philosophies, and caring theory, as well as ancient poetry and wisdom traditions. It integrates some of the philosophical views of Levinas and Logstrup with Watson's Transpersonal Caring Theory.

A theory of ontological nature in caring administration has been developed from a Caring science perspective. Caritative leadership is named according to the motive, human love, and mercy, and its main idea is ministering to the patients. It consists of 5 theses in relation to the view of the human being: the caritas motive, dignity, measurement and meaning in health care, and the relationships in the caring culture. Without a clear vision of what care of the patients could be, there is the risk that ministering to the patient is lost in the demands of different stakeholders.