Patient advocacy: Shared vulnerability and personal integrity

Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring and phenomenological methodology are the foundation of this descriptive study of four nurses' experiences of patient advocacy. The "meaning units" or constituents expressed by the participants were synthesized into an integrated whole to embody the experiences of patient advocacy and then objectively described by the researcher. Six components that embody the nurses' experiences are knowledge of self and others, caring commitment, expenditure of self, risks, emotional responses and psychological evolution and mutual affirmation. A better understanding of nurse's experiences of patient advocacy may provide more effective and satisfying nurse-client, nurse-as-person and nurse-as-professional relationships.