title: Practicing nursing therapeutically through acting as a skilled companion on the illness journey.
abstract: This article explores nursing's heritage as a healing, therapeutic activity. It examines the central characteristics of nursing as skilled companionship and links them with the foundational core of nursing--a therapeutic relationship based on an understanding of the illness experience. In addition, it discusses the role of literature and performance in developing knowledge to advance nursing as a therapeutic activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Borbasi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Walsh
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000523:psychology; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D009732:Nursing Care; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D016896:Treatment Outcome