Narratives in nursing: an interpretation of Joyce Travelbee’s views from a student nurse’s experience

Abstract

Introduction. Home nursing practice instructs patients and families on skills, self-care, and activities to maintain and improve health. This profession embodies the nursing feeling through actions. According to Joyce Travelbee, the nurse and patient form a human relationship, where empathy, compassion, transference, and emotional aspects of nursing provide relief during care. Development. An undergraduate nursing student's experiential situation of in-home wound healing during a pandemic is the basis of a nursing narrative. The nursing metaparadigm was analyzed considering the concepts of person, health, care, and environment, as proposed by Anne Bookin and Savina Schoenhoffer, along with the Patterns of Knowledge in nursing. The relationship between the patient and their family, management of the situation, and nursing actions were examined from Joyce Travelbee's perspective. Conclusion. Through the narrative, this experience fostered reflection on the ability and confidence to provide nursing care during academic training. Analyzing this experience can motivate future nurses to engage in events that promote practices based on epistemological elements, stemming from the most intimate aspects of nursing.