The Process of Nurses Attempting to Fulfil Their Practice Responsibilities

Abstract

The nursing profession must fulfil its responsibilities to those in need of nursing care, namely patients and their families. However, it is unclear how nurses perceive their practice responsibilities and how they attempt to fulfil them. This qualitative inductive study used modified grounded theory approach with 15 nurses to clarify the process of how nurses attempt to fulfil their responsibility of practice. The results show that the process of nurses’ responsibility towards practice includes the characteristics of the nursing profession, their role in nursing practice, and the delivery of benefits or the avoidance of disadvantages to patients. It was suggested that the nurse collects the necessary information about the patient for practice, and exercises their authority as a ‘gateway function’ to ensure that the treatment did not interfere with the patient’s daily life. Finally, they seek to assume the obligations of that authority.