What is the nature of nurse practitioners' lived experiences interacting with patients?
OBJECTIVE
To illuminate the nature of the lived experiences of nurse practitioners (NPs) interacting with patients, to discover the essential meanings of those lived experiences, and to articulate a structure gleaned from the essential meanings.


METHODS
Six NPs provided concrete descriptions of their experiences interacting with patients. Data were collected and analyzed using a descriptive, phenomenological method of inquiry.


CONCLUSIONS
The data revealed eight essential meanings for interacting with patients: openness, connection, concern, respect, reciprocity, competence, time, and professional identity. The nature of NPs' lived experiences interacting with patients is an authentic attending to health-related concerns, originating and enduring within the context of an intersubjective relationship. Through the dialogues that evolve within the context of intersubjective relationships, both NPs and patients become more as persons, amenable to understanding the meanings each has assigned to his or her life-world situations, regardless of the outcomes of any health-related interventions.


CONCLUSIONS
The NPs in this study valued the relationships that ensued from their interactions with patients. From these relationships they derived both personal and professional growth. Intersubjective relating is the "art of nursing" for the participants in this study.
Kleiman
Susan
S
Lehman College, City University of New York, USA. susank@humanistic-nursing.com
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003142:Communication; D004645:Empathy; D005086:Existentialism; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007697:Kinesics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D011361:Professional Competence; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014110:Touch; D035502:Trust