While initiated for research purposes, the group phenomenology approach became a form of nursing praxis. Early in the project, groups spontaneously shared a sense of pleasure and gratitude for the experience of celebrating themselves and each other as caring persons. This opportunity for reflection was then added as closure for the subsequent groups as it was recognized by the primary researchers that the tenets of Nursing as Caring were being lived: persons were known, acknowledged, affirmed and celebrated as caring; per-sonhood was enhanced as group members recapitulated, clarified and reaffirmed the meaning and value of caring in their lives; caring between nurse (researchers) and nursed in the nursing (research) situation was created and persons were nurtured in their uniquely personal ways of caring.
A second research approach was designed to study values experienced in nursing situations (Schoenhofer & Boykin, 1998a; 1998b). The design of this approach was based on several considerations: 1) the tenet that all that can be known of nursing is known through the nursing situation, the shared lived experience of caring between nurse and nursed; and, 2) the blurred lines between research and practice, between roles of researcher, practitioner and even patient. A mode of inquiry into outcomes of caring in nursing, from the perspective of Nursing as Caring, must necessarily be centered within the nursing situation. In earlier phases of this research, only the nurse participated in the research dialogue (Boykin & Schoenhofer, 1997). While this approach was fruitful, two important qualities were missing: 1) the synergism that brought a wealth of rich data when both nurse and nursed were present; and, 2) the intersubjective confirmation provided by having both the nurse and the nursed as research participants. Once again, the mutuality of the dialogue about the value of caring experienced went beyond simple data production for research purposes. The dialogue itself was an extension of the nursing relationship and the caring between nurse and nursed, with the research nurse now included in the unfolding nursing situation.
CONCLUSION
This epilogue has been written to bring the reader up to date on the development of the theory of Nursing as Caring. Developmental efforts projected in Chapter 6 are still needed, and efforts in progress hold promise for further development. As the cadre of nurses interested in working within the theory grows, development will accelerate, in both projected and novel directions.
Anne Boykin, PhD, RN Professor and Dean College of Nursing Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, Florida