Shared humanity and the psychiatric nurse–patient encounter

✍ Scribed by Kenneth Walsh

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 53 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1324-3780
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1440-0979.1999.00124.x

✦ Synopsis

ABSTRACT

The paper is based on a phenomenological study of the nurse–patient encounter, the purpose of which was to uncover meaning and generate understandings of being a psychiatric nurse. The study was informed by the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger (1962) and the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans‐Georg
Gadamer (1975). Drawing upon this phenomenological study it is my intention to discuss three of the existential elements to emerge from an interpretative analysis of these encounters; ‘Being‐with’ as understanding, ‘Being‐with’ as possibility, and ‘Being‐with’ as ‘care‐full’ concern. The paper also discusses two modes of being‐with patients; the modes of the ‘they’ nurse and the ‘self’ nurse. An underlying theme of shared humanity emerged from the study and had the effect of unifying the other concepts uncovered.