¶ … Boykin and Schoenhofer in their theory of Nursing as Care. I first attempt to define the concepts according to the way that they are interpreted in the secondary literature. I then go on to provide some insights pertaining to the relevancy that these concepts have in the context of performing nursing care upon patients. Nursing as Care, according to Boykin and Schoenhofer, has several influences which shed light on the meaning of the particular concepts that are constructed in the course of the theory's development. Most significantly, the theory is influenced by Humanism and its emphasis upon the penchant possessed by humans for improvement. This underlying premise affects the construction of the concept of "person." The patient is interpreted as more than simply the recipient of medical interventions. Instead, he or she is perceived as a unique being with personalized needs.

Additionally, the theory adopts a phenomenological existentialist perspective when formulating its understanding of care. Accordingly, care is interpreted as a mode of being in which the nurse should attempt to exist "authentically " when in the presence of the patient. Existing authentically entails failing to simply assume the role that society or culture typically attributes to one who is attributable with a social identity in a social context. Accordingly, it means acting originally as opposed to acting in ways that merely reflect the typified expectations that society has of a nurse. In order to act authentically when caring for a patient, one must be properly attuned to the specific situation, so that he or she can recognize aspects of the person undergoing care that transcend the definition of patient (McCance, McKenna & Boore). Consequently, the nurse goes beyond only applying standard medical...

The nurse is properly involved in an interpersonal relationship in which he or she learns of the patient's unique personal qualities -- what make the patient an individual -- in order to attend to needs that differentiate that person from others who might fill the role of patient. [1: A Heideggerian term that is used to indicate a modality of being in which the person acts uniquely as opposed to a state of existence in which the person merely acts according to the expectations associated with his or her assumed or ascribed status in society.