Nurses as Gifted Artists in Caring: An Analysis of Nursing Care Concept

BACKGROUND: Nursing care happens with the artistic presence of the nurse in the care setting. Despite its importance in nursing, yet many ambiguities surround its definition and characteristics. The aim of this study was to analyze the concept of nursing care. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This concept analysis was conducted using Walker and Avant's approach. An extensive literature search was done in the Medline, CINAHL, Embase and SID databases to find articles published in English between 1988 and 2019. The search keywords were “care”, “nursing care”, “concept”, “concept analysis”, and similar words. According to Walker and Avant's approach, after selecting the concept and determining the aim of analysis, 3742 references were reviewed and 68 articles and 2 books were selected to determine and extract the defining attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents of the nursing care concept. RESULTS: The three main defining attributes of the concept were relationship, compassion, and professional action. The antecedents were nurse-related, client-related and environment-related, and the consequences were for nurses, clients and community. CONCLUSIONS: The defining attributes, antecedents, and consequences determined in the present study help better understand the concept of nursing care. This study highlights the importance of the communicative, caring, and advocacy roles of nurses and their compassionate professional action in the promotion of individual and community health.