The Concept of Nursing Art in the Experiences of Patients with Open Heart Surgery: A Phenomenological Study

In spite of existing documentations and contemporary theories emphasizing on both science and art aspects of nursing, literature review reveals that most of published studies rely on scientific side of nursing. The aim of this study is to explain the concept of nursing as art in the experiences of patients with open heart surgery.
In current study with an Interpretative Phenomenology approach twenty patients were selected and entered into the study after open heart surgery in open heart surgery units of Vali-e-asr and Fatemeh Al-Zahra Hospitals (Mazandaran-Iran) in 2017. Patients were chosen by purposeful sampling method with maximum variety (age, sex, education…). Data were collected with deep, semi-structured, and individual interviews. All interviews were recorded, handwritten, and interpreted based on the van Manen interpretation phenomenology.
Three main themes were derived after analysis of phenomenon of nursing art as; a) “care by mother as an angel” with sub-themes of compassion, intimacy, sympathy, hope and morale, b) “care beyond expectations and profession” with sub-themes of technical merit and moral merit and c) “permanent presence” with sub-themes of physical presence and psychological presence.
The findings confirmed that participants considered nursing as an art when they received professional nursing care described as "care by mother as an angel". Patient experiences provide a beautiful perspective of nursing which achieving such level of maturity and promotion requires fundamental changes in nurse education with serious consideration to ethical issues, humanity and artistic concepts of nursing.