Question

Despite the secularization of the profession of nursing, Benner proposes that understanding the nurse in the light of Good Samaritan parable as the "compassionate stranger" is a powerful metaphor to explain the caring of work of nursing and its intimacy with patients and their families. Do you agree with her perspectives? How does considering the role of the nurse within society become informed by this metaphor?

Answer 1

Intimacy is an increasingly important concept in nursing and feature of the nurse–patient relationship, which is perceived to be intrinsic to the proposed therapeutic potential of nursing. The introduction to the paper highlights the theoretical enthusiasm and endorsement of intimacy, the apparent lack of conceptual clarity from a nursing perspective and little published research investigating intimacy in practice. Method. Literature is reviewed from nursing and a variety of health–related disciplines. Findings. The paper traces the historical background of the nurse–patient relationship and intimacy and highlights the change in value from detachment and distancing to intimacy, commitment and involvement. The nature of intimacy is examined and a concept analysis based on literature from psychology and psychiatric medicine is critically analysed. Intimacy is suggested to have psychological, emotional and physical aspects, which are explored. An ethnographic research study on intimacy in nursing is reviewed, which also recognizes physical and emotional dimensions of the concept and the importance of sufficient resources to allow the close relationships advocated. Attention is drawn to the constraints on intimacy imposed by the current market–led health service. Literature and research on the implications and consequences of intimacy for the nurse are discussed. These report practical difficulties of maintaining close relationships with individual patients and the potential for over-involvement and emotional labour. Conclusion. The paper concludes with the increasing importance attached to intimacy in nursing and its complex, ill-defined nature. This serves to highlight the importance of research aimed at exploring and clarifying intimacy and further illustrating the therapeutic potential of nursing.

Social responsibility in nursing is a complex concept that is completely associated with the context and healthcare system of every society. The study was conducted to analyze the concept of nurse’s social responsibility .

The analysis was done using a hybrid model, which consists of three phases: a literature review in the theoretical phase, semi-structured interviews in the fieldwork phase, and combination of the results of the two previous phases in a final analytical phase.The four main themes extracted in the theoretical phase included: "Multi-dimensional and comprehensive approach", spirituality-based, learner-based and an evolutionary-process. In the fieldwork phase, all the themes obtained in the previous phase were confirmed, and one more theme emerged as "being relative". In the final phase, with the combination of the results of two previous phases, the final definition of the concept was presented. Clarifying the social responsibility of nurses and highlighting it in nursing will definitely lead to satisfaction in patients and clients, professional development and reduction of health care costs. Also, by identifying facilitators, inhibitors and social responsibility concepts, nursing managers and nursing educators will be able to design and implement their management and training activities based on scientific findings based on the findings that are necessary for the correct learning and implementation.