A passport to privileged intimacy
The social sanction o f nursing is an important passport that allows a nurse to access the
norm ally very private aspects o f a client’s life in nursing interactions. The role that nursing
has in society is fundamental to understanding how anonymous in timacy type situations are
created. While it is not the intention in this thesis to present a specific approach, it is
important to encapsulate the most important features of my perception of nursing's mission
in society. The following passage from Benner and Wrubel ( 1989) represent both the
artful and scientific aspects of the caring service nursing offers to society. The only
qualification is that this quote pertains only to illness situations. Nursing is involved in all
health events in life, not just illness, and in the community , not just the hospital. To use
Christensen's ( 1990) term "health relate d event" is vague, but perhaps necessarily so.
Nurses are concerned with health, o f which illness, birth, growth, and death are parts. The
researcher's amendments to Benner and Wrubel's passage are indicated in italics.