title: Caring for prisoners-patients: a quandary for registered nurses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to unveil the complexity of registered nurse (RN) care for prisoner-patients in an acute care perioperative setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study design was based on phenomenology and the philosophy of Hans George Gadamer.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study used researcher journaling and two audio-taped in-depth interviews with each of the 12 nurse participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five key fused horizons or joint understandings emerged that resonated for all participants. They were the following: • RNs give prisoner-patients perfunctory care; • Prisoner-patient care is reactive; • Caring for prisoner-patients is emotionally draining; • Knowing or imagining a prisoner-patient's crime creates practice dilemmas; and • Expressions of care straddle ideal and real caring perspectives.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the caring literature, caring is altruistically presented as an ideal that (ought to) guide RN interactions with patients. However, the study findings call into question the assumptions that are made about what it means to care and how RNs enact their caring role, particularly in vexatious situations.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Crampton
authors.forename: de Sales
authors.initials: de S
authors.lastname: Turner
mesh_terms: D009726:Nurses; D010361:Patients; D011329:Prisoners; D014739:Victoria
keywords: Gadamer; PACU; postanesthesia care; prisoner