"Finding a snowflake": A journey into caring as experienced by nurse managers

The purpose of this phenomenological research was to capture the experience of caring in the lived world of the nurse managers. Interviews with six nurse managers were utilized to generate data and then transcribed into text. The researcher's analysis of the data followed the phenomenological method as interpreted by Ray. Essential themes of growth, listening, frustration, intuition, support, and receiving of gifts were described by participants. Variant themes of touch, humor, flexibility, counseling, limitations, and competence also emerged. Interpretive themes of nurses' way of being, reciprocal caring, and caring moment as transcendence unfolded. A metatheme of energy emerged from further analysis. Deeper reflection and intuition afforded the researcher the opportunity to grasp the unity of meaning as a metaphorical snowflake and poetic expression.