‘The everlasting trial of strength and patience’: transitions in home care nursing as narrated by patients and family members

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe and interpret patients' and their family members' lived experiences of caring at home. Twelve tape-recorded narratives, with seven patients and five family members, were interpreted in accordance with a phenomenological-hermeneutic method inspired by Ricoeur. The findings revealed life situations where natural caring was changed into patient-care-giver relations and the home became a public room. The patients had to deal with decreased abilities and the family members with adjusting to caring needs. The changes in the life situations were interpreted as long lasting and trying transitions. Implications for nursing and further research are proposed.