Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
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The process of taking care in nurse-client interaction
Name - Maria do Carmo Lemos Vieira Gouveia
Adress - Escola Superior de Enfermagem da Madeira - University of
Madeira, Campus Universitário da Penteada 9000-380 Funchal
Portugal
Qualifications - Master Degree, Mental Health and Psychiatric Nurse,
Nursing Professor
Ph: +351 967259603 Fax:+351 705038
Email:carmo.gouveia@gmail.com
Background and context
Taking care is an act of reciprocity that structures nurse’s role.
Reflection on what we do and how we do it, is an act that makes
possible to take into consideration our professional identity like a
continuous reconstruction, essential to change and transformation.
The change, consists in clarifying and specifying our mental
representation.
Each nurse has her referential scheme; each one has her
appropriate concept of the profession, her way to understand her
role.
However, it is difficult to indicate by words the mental image that
she has about her profession. Many nurses are incapable to clearly
explain the nature of their contribute for health promotion. A little
image demands a clear definition, which is possible with a clear
presentation of the situation. That is necessary to the scientific
credibility of Nursing as well as the political and social recognition.
Aim of the study
With the purpose of giving visibility to the process of taking care in
nurse-client interaction, to help turning conscious the orientation of
nurses practice and to allow the personal reflection of nurses on its
form of taking care, an analytic case study was developed with the
following objectives: “To know elements of the theoretical
referential that guides nurses practice” and “To analyse nurse-client
process of communication in an emergency service.”
Methodology
An analytic case study was developed in a qualitative approach,
using the interaction analysis method. Eight nurses of a Portuguese
emergency unit have joined to the study voluntarily. The data was
collected through participant observation and semi-structured in
depth interviews.
Analysis
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