AN EXPERT AS A NOVICE A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY

ALIREZA NIKBAKHT NASRABADI¹, SHARZAD GHIAVANDIAN², SAFA SADAGHIANI^*3

¹BSN, MScN, PhD, Full Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran - ²BSN, MScN. PhD, Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran - ³BSN, MScN, PhD Student, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Background: Despite the public opinion that a nurse is always a nurse, but it should also be noted that a nurse play a dual role at the time of taking care of a family member. He often bears trouble to find its true role at this time and it is seen that finding a solution in these situations is not always easy. Because, unlike the trainings and cases indicated in nursing theories, we could state that the nurses are never ready to provide a perfect care which endow them the accountability as a professional nurse to provide nursing care for their family.

Objective: The present paper aims to describe the nurses’ lived experiences of attending their relatives. The study illustrates the nature of nurses’ experiences at the time of taking care of their family members.

Methods: This study is a phenomenology research with hermeneutics approach which was implemented to describe and under- stand the lived experiences of nurses in attending their relatives. The study applied a combination of purposive and snow-ball sampling methods. The participants must be the holders of bachelor’s degrees or higher degree in nursing, being employed or retired and possess at least one experience of attending their family member which has been hospitalized and have the ability to express and transfer information. Eventually 11 cases (and 2 men) were selected. The information data was coded 9 women after being implemented. It was then analyzed by Dickelman analysis method.

Results: One of the main themes obtained in the study was the sense of inability to practice. The two sub-themes including doubt on adequacy of action and inefficient knowledge in practice were also presented in this study. The semantic units including feelings of uncertainty on adequacy of action, inability to apply knowledge, sense of inability, sense of uncertainty, future prediction, imagination of worst positions and doubt and indecision were mentioned in relation to sub-theme of doubt on adequacy. The semantic units of difference in performance by professional and non- professional people and negative impact of practical consciousness were introduced in relation to sub-themes of inefficient knowledge in practice.

Discussion: The research indicated that the nurses are not prepared for the position of attending their family member and are never trained for such situations. The nurses also possess dual role in this regard: Nursing care provider and recipient of nursing care. It should be noted that both nursing training and nurse trainee programs have been neglected in this area.