Unlocking presence

We were curious about how to cultivate presence in nurses.

#presence #nurses

Mrs Christelle Oukouomi Noutchie, a psychiatric nursing specialist, conducted a systematic review, using an explorative and descriptive design, to find out what scientific literature exists on this topic. She conducted the systematic review as part of her masters degree study, titled: The cultivation of caring presence in nurses: a systematic review.

Prior to her study, no research synthesis was available on cultivating caring presence. The five steps for a systematic review as adapted from the Evidence Analysis Manual (2016) were followed, including formulating a focused review question, gathering and classifying the evidence, conducting a critical appraisal, summarising evidence and drafting conclusions. Five main themes emerged from the synthesis.

The main themes included that caring presence in nursing can be cultivated through critical thinking skills and awareness, holistic care, awareness of the concept of presence and types of presence, fostering personal and professional growth and, the cultivation of caring presence through reflection.

Valuable suggestions through which caring presence can be cultivated could be made, as well as recommendations for nursing practice, education and research.

For further reading

Mrs Oukouomi Noutchie wrote a chapter in our book on presence. Her mini-dissertation is available at the North West University’s library.