Structure of nursing care - Analysis of the structure and process of nursing care in the primary nurse support system

• Published in: University of Hyogo College of Nursing Art and Science & Research Institute of Nursing Care for People and Community Bulletin Vol. 18; pp. 49 - 63
• Main Author: NONAMI Youko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: University of Hyogo College of Nursing Art and Science & Research Institute of Nursing Care for People and Community 01.03.2011
• ISSN: 1881-6592

[Abstract] Aim : The purpose of this study was to clarify the structure and process of nursing care in actual practice in the "primary nurse support system" a systematized nursing care resource that can be used by nurses for patients in their charge, based on the concept of "caring". Methods : This study was carried out using symbolic interaction theory, as follows. The study made use of the grounded theory. The subjects of this study consisted of nurses in a general hospital in Tokyo. After the study was explained to them, informed consent for participation in this study was obtained from all the nurses involved. Data were collected by the interview method and continuously analyzed until no new category was obtained. Data collection was continued until the purpose of this study was realized, in 1999. A total of 34 nurses were interviewed. Their length of nursing experience ranged from 1 to 11 years (mean : 3.9 years). Results : As a result of the evaluation of associations among the major nursing care concepts of "creation of situations", "creation of nursing care places (community)" and the "emergence of persons", nursing care could be structured and defined as "symbiotic nursing care". Conclusion : Based on the results of this study, symbiosis could be defined as "a process involving the generation of individuals in the space formed by the creation of situations after establishing subjects and sharing meanings between the participants and other people, and by the creation of places allowing connections to be made with the feelings of others present". "Symbiotic" nursing care can therefore be seen as a social act involving a process of socialization that mutually creates multiple "situations" between nurses and patients and multiple "nursing care places (community)" among nurses, where patients' daily life patterns gradually emerge, and nurses cooperate and become independent.