The Art of Caring in Selected Norwegian Nursing Homes: A Qualitative Approach

Abstract

Background: Caring in nursing includes reflection as well as healthcare personnel’s attitudes and their intentions. However, without blending the art of caring into patient care, healthcare personnel are unable to meet their ultimate goal as a holistic patient advocate. Ethical caring is a state of being-in-relation, characterized by receptivity, relatedness, and engrossment.

Aim: To investigate what the healthcare personnel in Norwegian nursing homes perceive as good care for the patients.

Method: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 11 health care personnel, who represented three nursing homes and who were purposively collected to find informants with knowledge about the phenomenon under investigation. A qualitative approach was used in the analyses, involving five analytical stages: categorization of meaning, condensation of meaning, structuring of meaning, interpretation of meaning, and ad hoc methods for generating meaning.

Results: The results were organized in categories that emerged from the data. These were; 1) culture for good caring, 2) holistic care, 3) experience of successful caring and of feeling inadequate and little appreciated and 4) response from others are crucial.

Conclusion: Health care personnel in this study experienced many difficult challenges and still were able to focus on being “solution oriented” and “caring oriented”. The informants also described using a holistic approach, health promotion, and ethics in their caring for the patients.