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The concept of presence found its way into the nursing literature in the 1960s with the writings of Vaillot (1962, 1966). While its theoretical roots exist in the disciplines of religion and philosophy, nursing scholarship has been nurturing and developing the term over the last four decades. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the means which nurse writers have used to shape this concept, contributing to its further development and application within the discipline of nursing.
The etymology of the word presence has received attention in a recent article by Doona, Haggerty, and Chase (1997). The original Latin nounpraesen derives from prae (i.e., "in front") and sens (i.e., "being"). Praesen is antonymous with absen (in which ab means "away from"). The verb form, praesentare, carries the meanings "to place before, to hold out, to offer." "Present" and "gift" are both English nouns that evolved from this verb (Doona et al., p. 6).
As a noun that has existed in the English language since the Middle Ages, "presence" has acquired various shades of meaning. Some of those meanings are dependent on the context or discipline in which the word is used. For instance, politics has traditionally used expressions such as "Her majesty's presence" to denote royal rank and stature (Doona et al., 1997, pp. 6-7). When applied to nursing, the word's etymology allows for a definition of presence as "a state in which the nurse is in the same place, near or in front of a patient, and in the same moment, holding out to the patient the gift of care" (Doona et al., p. 6).
As I will illustrate below, many other nursing definitions for presence are possible and have been offered since the word first emerged in nursing literature four decades ago. Measured against the one provided above, some nursing definitions have been more circumscribed, while others have proved more expansive. In fact, the precise meaning of the concept remains at the core of the nursing scholarship about presence and is therefore a central topic for this article.
Independent of its precise meaning, presence is a significant word or concept in clinical nursing practice. Caring for patients implies that the nurse must be present- that is, in the...