The nurses connect their holistic view to how nursing is
organised, to nursing tasks and routines and to interdisciplinary
work. Working as a nurse in hospitals varies
between, as the nurses express it, being ‘the main responsible
person’, as a group leader of about nine patients in
the ward and being one to ‘go out in the wards’, to do
tasks delegated by the group leader. They express a holistic
view both in knowing the patients’ individual or general
needs for nursing and treatment as well as knowing what
tasks to delegate to other nurses in their group. However,
the nurses emphasise that medications and procedures
make up much of their work time. A nurse from a medical
ward expressed the difficulties that arise when the opportunity
to help the patients with what they really need is
limited: