Progressively engaging: constructing nurse, patient, and family relationships in acute care settings.

In this grounded theory study, informed by symbolic interactionism, we explain how nurses, patients, and family members construct relationships in acute care settings, including managing effects of work environments. We recruited participants from 10 acute care units across four community hospitals in a Western Canadian city. From 33 hr of participant observation and 40 interviews with 13 nurses, 17 patients, and 10 family members, we constructed the basic social-psychological process of progressively engaging.

The family theory-practice gap: a matter of clarity?

Despite recognition of the importance of family in health-care and progress in family theory development, there has been limited transfer of family theory to acute care nursing practice. We argue that this family theory-practice gap results from a persistent lack of conceptual clarity in family nursing and other barriers. Lack of conceptual clarity takes the form of conceptual overlap and semantic inconsistency, as well as the complexity of language found in the family nursing literature.