Abstract

This research study explored the nurses' and patients' experience of the art of nursing. The research question guiding the study was: What is the meaning of the art of nursing? ;Historical and contemporary writings on the art of nursing have not addressed the question from the perspective of the patient and nurse. Influenced by positivistic science, theory development in nursing has focused on advancing nursing science. The value of researching the art of nursing has been overshadowed by a philosophy of positivism that prevails in science and the system of health care in the United States. ;A phenomenological-hermeneutic-aesthetic approach was selected to study the research question. Five distinctive metathemes expressed the art of nursing as: The Way of Being There in Caring; The Way of Being-With in Understanding Caring; The Way of Creating Opportunities for Fullness of Being through Caring; A Transcendent Togetherness, and The Context of Caring. ;The themes and metathemes derived from the narratives led to the constitution of a unity of meaning; A Transcendence Together in Love--The True Spirit of Understanding Caring that creates a Liberating Way of Helping. The metaphor, The Gift of Self conveys this theory of the meaning of the art of nursing. ;Expressing the giving and receiving between the nurse and patient, The Gift of Self speaks of the unfolding creation of the art of nursing. Through caring, the nurse originates nursing with the patient and co-creates a unique way of helping characterized as liberating and emancipatory. ;The theory of the art of nursing re-creates extant theories of matriarchal art and caring in nursing. Implications of this new paradigm calls for a dynamic synthesis of ontology, epistemology and axiology unfolding the art of nursing