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TOPIC. The concept of nursing presence has been explored within the context of contemporary nursing practice.
PURPOSE. The purpose of this study was to enhance the understanding of the concept of presence in nursing and to enlighten nurses on the subject of being with people in ways that values the meaning of the lived experience of patients.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. Professional literature, electronic resources, and nursing textbooks were used.
CONCLUSION. This is a literature review that clarifies the concept of presence for nurses. Clarifying this concept will further aid in the development of nursing research and education, and will provide nurses with the ability to apply the act of being present into their professional practice.
Search terms: Clinical practice, nursing presence
Introduction
Interest in presence within the profession of nursing has gained renewed attention over the past several years. The purpose of this article is to examine presence as a concept within the professional nursing practice environment. This article will outline presence in theoretical discourse, the act of being present, and outcomes of providing presence to patients. Fredriksson (1999) explains that the value of presence lies in the ability of the nurse to create a space where the patient can be in deep contact with his or her suffering, to allow the patient to share with a caring individual, and to assist the patient to find his or her own way forward through the health experience. Presence can be translated into an actual caring art that affects the healing and well-being of both the nurse and the patient (Watson, 1999). The usefulness of presence as a treatment modality has been generally accepted as valid in the nursing research literature. Presence is an important concept in nursing practice as it has the ability to transcend through all patient interactions.
Theoretical Perspectives
Nursing presence is difficult to define because of the elusiveness of the concept Recent nurse scholars have defined presence as "an intersubjective encounter between a nurse and a patient in which the nurse encounters the patient as a unique human being in a unique situation and chooses to spend her /himself on the patient's behalf. The antecedents to presence are the nurse's decision to immerse her/himself in the patient's situation and the patient's willingness...