"Catching My Wavelength": Perceptions of the Excellent Nurse

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe essential characteristics of an excellent nurse as perceived by women with breast cancer. A descriptive-exploratory research design was used, and 10 Danish women who had breast cancer surgery and treatment more than one year previously and who were still in secondary treatment but not hospitalized participated in semi-structured interviews. Four main concepts were identified: The excellent nurse was perceived as competent, compassionate, courageous, and concordant. Concordance was more important to the subjects than expected and was described as directly related to their perception of an excellent nurse and excellence in nursing.