Philosophy Of Ricoeur Research Articles

Women's narratives during the acute phase of their myocardial infarction.

The purpose of this study was to illuminate the meaning of lived experiences during the acute phase of an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Ten women (< 60 years old) afflicted with AMI narrated their experiences during their stay in the coronary care unit (CCU). The interview texts were interpreted using a method with a phenomenological hermeneutic approach, inspired by the philosophy of Ricoeur. The text was divided into meaning units that were condensed and abstracted. Three themes were then extracted from the text. One theme was 'oneself as vulnerable' with the subthemes: 'the feeling of being dependent upon others', 'the feeling of being insulted' and 'the feeling of being a troublesome person'. Another theme was 'oneself as distanced', with the subthemes: 'not facing the reality', 'captive in an unreal situation', and 'inhibition out of concern for others'. The last theme was: 'oneself as making sense' with the subthemes: 'acquirement of some insight' and 'discovery of a new meaning with life'. The reported comprehensive understanding revealed the phenomena guilt and shame. These, in combination with the experience of being in an unreal situation and the withholding of feelings may have led to a deterioration of communication. It seems that relatives and the staff at CCU were not allowed to share the burden of being afflicted with an AMI.

The meaning of suicidal psychiatric inpatients' experiences of being treated by physicians.

Twenty-one psychiatric inpatients who had thought about, expressed a wish to, or even attempted to commit suicide narrated their experiences of receiving treatment from physicians. The interview texts were transcribed and interpreted using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method inspired by the philosophy of Ricoeur. Two main themes and eight themes were found. Participating Approach: being with the patients, listening to patients without prejudice, trusting each other, respecting patients' integrity; and Observing Approach: leaving patients to themselves, listening to patients with prejudice, mistrusting each other, not respecting patients' integrity. These findings were interpreted in the light of the writings of Hegel, Buber and Cissna and Sieburg. The suicidal patients expressed their need for confirmation in their interaction with physicians, that is they needed to meet with respect and interest when staying in the hospital with suicidal thoughts or after suicidal attempts.

Physicians' Stories about Suicidal Psychiatric Inpatients

Fourteen Norwegian, three Danish, and two Swedish physicians employed at a Norwegian psychiatric hospital narrated their lived experiences in caring for suicidal psychiatric inpatients. The interview text was transcribed and interpreted using a phenomenological-hermeneutics method, inspired by Ricoeur's philosophy. Two main themes were found: Power Over, i.e. Communicating with the patients; Not accepting one's own mortality; Not accepting one's own vulnerability; Not accepting one's own fallibility; Being rejected by the patients; and Power To, Deep communicating with the patients; Accepting one's own mortality; Accepting one's own vulnerability; Accepting one's own fallibility; Being trusted by the patients. These findings were pondered in the light of Cissna's and Sieburg's writings about confirming. The study emphasizes the importance to physicians of confronting their own strong and frightening feelings about mortality, vulnerability and fallibility in order to confirm suicidal psychiatric patients during interactions with them, when in hospital after suicide thoughts and attempts.

Acute myocardial infarction in middle-aged women: narrations from the patients and their partners during rehabilitation.

The purpose of this study was to examine the meaning of lived experiences after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and being a partner to an afflicted woman, as it is narrated during rehabilitation. Nine women and their partners narrated their experiences three and twelve months after AMI. The interview texts were transcribed and then interpreted, using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method inspired by the philosophy of Ricoeur. The result showed that their experiences of the illness contained two themes: 'rehabilitation needed' and 'loss of freedom' which contains eight sub-themes; 'adapting to it', 'struggling against it', 'living as normally as possible', 'having insight into how it can be', 'feeling guilty and ashamed about being weak', 'withholding feelings', 'feeling useless', and 'feeling fatigued and losing strength'. After further interpretation, the themes gave a deeper meaning of living with AMI and how it affects women and their partners. The women conceded that they felt distressed and vulnerable but struggled against the fear the illness means. The partner's role appears to be one of trying to adapt to the women's experiences of the illness. That the women withheld their feelings and did not talk about them indicates a lack of communication between the couples. As coronary care nurses often come very close both to the afflicted persons and the relatives they fill an important function in each patient's recovery. The nurses could help and prepare the patients and their relatives to understand better such feelings and reactions as could appear after discharge from hospital.

Communicating with people with stroke and aphasia: understanding through sensation without words.

To illuminate the phenomena of 'communicating with people with stroke and aphasia without words', 10 care providers particularly successful at communicating with stroke and aphasia patients who were working at a stroke rehabilitation ward narrated their experiences of communicating with such patients. A phenomenological hermeneutic approach, inspired by Ricoeur's philosophy, was used in the analysis. Two main themes were found: facilitating openness and being in wordless communication. The care providers sensed the feelings of the patients and experienced similar feelings themselves, thus, the communication is guided by the shared feelings between the care provider and the patient, i.e. communion. For this 'communication through sensation' to take place, the following factors were found to be necessary: creative closeness in combination with protective distance; striving for satisfaction and against exhaustion and desperation; meeting the patient halfway to gain understanding; exhibiting attention and accessibility to the patient; and trust and confidence for both care providers and patients. The findings were interpreted and discussed in the light of works by Levinas, Lögstrup and Stern.

Suffering from care as expressed in the narratives of former patients in somatic wards.

To illuminate patients' experiences of suffering from care, ten former patients in somatic wards narrated a desirable care episode (n = 39) and an undesirable care episode (n = 51). The interviews were analysed using a phenomenological hermeneutic method inspired by Ricoeur's philosophy. Four themes were found: having a good rest, suffering through, searching for autonomy and being cared for by attentive and committed staff. The findings were interpreted in light of Eriksson's description of suffering, which describes three kinds of suffering: 'suffering of life', 'suffering of illness' and 'suffering of caring'. Although not mentioned explicitly, it was evident that cases of suffering from care were indicated in the patients' narratives. The themes were related to the patients' states of health, their experience of the care situation and their descriptions of themselves, and could be understood as related to the acts of the 'drama of suffering' described by Eriksson. The study highlights the need for the patient to find a co-actor in the drama of suffering in order to prevent suffering from care, i.e. prevent hindrance to the patient in her/his struggle against the 'suffering of illness' and the 'suffering of life'. The patients must be seen as the directors of their own dramas of suffering.

The meaning of suicidal psychiatric in-patients' experiences of being cared for by mental health nurses.

Twenty-one psychiatric in-patients who had thought about, expressed the wish or even attempted to commit suicide narrated their experiences of receiving care from mental health nurses. The interview texts were transcribed and interpreted using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method, inspired by Ricoeur's philosophy. Two main themes with subthemes were found: Confirming: attending to patients' basic needs; seeing patient; having time for patient; being with patient; listening to patient without prejudice; being open to patient; accepting patient's feelings; communicating hope to patient; and Lack of confirming: overlooking patient's basic needs; not seeing patient; not having time for patient; leaving patient to herself or himself; listening to patient with prejudice; not being open to patient; denying patient her or his feelings; communicating hopelessness to patient. These findings were interpreted in the light of Hegel's philosophy of mutual recognition and confirmation. When relating episodes of good or bad nursing care suicidal patients emphasized their need for confirmation during their interaction with nurses when in hospital after suicide attempts.

Nurses' narrations about caring for inpatients with acute myocardial infarction

The purpose of this study was to examine the meaning of lived experiences of caring for peopleaffected by acute myocardial infarction. Thirty-four registered nurses at a Coronary Care Unit in the north of Sweden narrated their experiences of this specialized care of inpatients. The interview texts were transcribed and then interpreted using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method, inspired by the philosophy of Ricoeur. Two groups of texts were identified. One comprised ‘narratives about the patient’ within which were the themes: ‘distancing oneself from what is happening’ and ‘showing oneself as vulnerable’. The other was ‘narratives about caring’, with the themes: ‘reading of’, ‘adapting’, ‘coming close’ and ‘helping’. Various views on caring were disclosed and interpreted with reference to Martin Buber's philosophy. A comprehensive understanding of caring as oscillations between the poles distance and relation was formulated.

Unsettled, Uncertain and Striving to Understand: Toward an Understanding of the Situation of Persons with Suspected Dementia

The main purpose of this study was to understand the part played by clinical diagnosis in relation to persons with suspected dementia. Interviews were held with eight persons who had been evaluated clinically because of suspected dementia. A phenomenological-hermeneutic analysis inspired by Ricoeur's philosophy was performed. The findings revealed the overall meaning of "making sense" of early experiences of memory loss in terms of a clinical diagnosis by which participants are provided with a means of interpreting and ascribing some meanings to the changes in themselves. When a meaning cannot be established and the future is unknown, these experiences are found to pose an existential threat that projects into future existence. The study suggests that understanding how an informed diagnosis is comprehended by the client becomes essential when evaluating persons due to suspected dementia.

Touching by Skilled Nurses in Elderly Nursing Care

The frequency of touching in nursing care situations increases with patients who are in poor condition. Patients in long-term care often require help from nurses in all their daily activities. Touching is also an important form of communication in situations where the individual is no longer capable of reciprocal verbal communication. In this study, 10 nursing care situations were video recorded in a long-term care institution. The patients needed much help and had problems with verbal communication. Data analysis was inspired by Ricoeur's philosophy (1976) and involved three steps: naive understanding, structural analysis and comprehensive understanding. The findings show that each nurse-patient pair had its own distinct patterns of interaction that had taken shape over the years. Some nurses stood very close to their patients and frequently hugged, patted and stroked them; others remained at a greater physical distance and did not touch their patients more than was necessary to perform their tasks. In spite of their different patterns, all the nurses were highly competent and skilful in their jobs.

Touching by Skilled Nurses in Elderly Nursing Care

The frequency of touching in nursing care situations increases with patients who are in poor condition. Patients in long-term care often require help from nurses in all their daily activities. Touching is also an important form of communication in situations where the individual is no longer capable of reciprocal verbal communication. In this study, 10 nursing care situations were video recorded in a long-term care institution. The patients needed much help and had problems with verbal communication. Data analysis was inspired by Ricoeur's philosophy (1976) and involved three steps: naive understanding, structural analysis and comprehensive understanding. The findings show that each nurse—patient pair had its own distinct patterns of interaction that had taken shape over the years. Some nurses stood very close to their patients and frequently hugged, patted and stroked them; others remained at a greater physical distance and did not touch their patients more than was necessary to perform their tasks. In spite of their different patterns, all the nurses were highly competent and skilful in their jobs.

The role of advocacy in critical care nursing: a caring response to another.

With the aim of clarifying critical care nursing, six critical care nurses, working in a Swedish intensive care unit (ICU) were each asked to narrate a care situation with which they had been satisfied or dissatisfied. The stories were tape-recorded and analysed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach inspired by the philosophy of Ricoeur. The themes uncovered in the analysis describe the nurse's role of advocacy as: to build a caring relationship, to carry out a commitment, to empower, to make room for and interconnect, to be a risk-taker, to be a moral agent and to create a trusting atmosphere conducive to recovery. The meaning of the role of advocacy lies in a moral and existential response to another human being, an expression of caring. Advocacy rests on the patient-nurse relationship and occurs as an outspoken demand of another human being whose autonomy is threatened. The results are discussed from the ethical perspectives of Lögstrup, Watson's concept of care, and existential advocacy as expressed by Gadow.

Being as Act and Potency in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur

The claim that being has the significance of both actuality and potentiality has been a persistent theme in Paul Ricoeur's philosophy from his early Poetics of the Will, through his investigations into the semantic innovation of metaphor and narrative, until his most recent work on the hermeneutics of the self. Initially, it was a matter of accounting for the primordial mediation of freedom by nature. Ricoeur needed a way of responding to the Sartrean position that subjectivity is a nothingness beyond being, and he found it in the classical notion that being is act before it is essence, that it is effort before it is inert presence. Later, Ricoeur's exploration of the phenomenon of semantic innovation led him again to a dynamic conception of being, one that does not make the mistake of equating the real with the empirically verifiable. Poetry and fiction intend being, not as given, as possible. Most recently, in working out the ontology required by the hermeneutics of the self set forth in Oneself as Another, Ricoeur once again has recourse to a ground of being at once potential and actual. What unites these three stages along the way of Ricoeur's philosophy, despite their difference in method and subject-matter, is the deep conviction that being is active and dynamic, that it does not stand aloof from activity is something in which the being can creatively participate. and The first stage on the road toward a recovery of the sense of being as actuality and potentiality occurs in Ricoeur's early attempt (in the 1950s and '60s) to rethink the primordial mediation of freedom by nature. Although the most important work on this topic during this period is no doubt and (1950), I would like to proceed by examining the lesser known essay, Nature and Freedom (1962), where Ricoeur addresses the question of whether it is still permissible to speak of human today.' He approaches the question by following two routes. First, he undertakes a regressive and reductive analysis in which freedom is increasingly set in opposition to nature, and then he sets forth a progressive synthesis in which freedom is brought into a new relationship with nature. From a denial of nature, therefore, we move toward a new affirmation of the nature within us. Along the way, Ricoeur offers some very revealing comments regarding his conception of being. The first moment in the destruction of nature, which corresponds roughly to the classical tradition, consists of the threefold conquest of the institution, the tool, and (NF 24/126). In comparison to the institution (or law, nomos), nature appears in the sense of the state of nature before any law or civilization. It is the reign of violence and disorder. Technology and art represent the second aspect of humanity's conquest of nature. Recalling Book 2 of Aristotle's Physics, Ricoeur observes that the analysis of tools reveals the essential difference between those things that exist by nature (phusei) and those things that exist by art (techne) (192b9-24). Here nature no longer signifies disorder and Ricoeur says, but spontaneity in the coming into existence, production according to an internal principle (NF 25/126). The third aspect of humanity's conquest of nature is language (logos). The world of signs sets up nature as a pre-existing order of mute expressions and brute appearances, thus creating a division between things that are said (discourse) and things that simply are (nature) (NF 25/126). We have thus moved from nature as a state of violence, as spontaneity in living things, to the mute existence of brute things. In each of these aspects (institutions, technology, and language), freedom asserts its separation from, and opposition to, the state of pure nature. In spite of this initial opposition, however, the break between nature and existence in the classical tradition was not total. …

Stories of being a hospice nurse: a journey towards finding one's footing.

This article sheds light on the meaning of the lived experience of being a hospice nurse, as interpreted from in-depth interviews with 18 hospice nurses. The nurses' stories were analyzed using a phenomenologic-hermeneutic approach inspired by the philosophy of Ricoeur. Findings were synthesized into two themes: pursuing meaningful hospice care and pursuing spiritual integrity. Results indicated that it was the nurses' conceptions of "ideal" hospice practice that seemed to be the lens through which the nurses experienced and interpreted "real" practice as being either vitalizing or devitalizing. Results also indicated that being a hospice nurse means being visible as a person, in the sphere between the sacred and the profane and on the border between eternity and the finite. In narrating these experiences, the nurses used metaphors pointing towards "the sacred" and a "consciousness of fault." The tension between "ideal" and "real" hospice practices, and the nurses' vitalizing and devitalizing experiences and their use of metaphors in narrating these experiences are interpreted in the light of Bauman's two "life strategies" of deconstructing mortality and immortality, and Ricoeur's Symbolism of Evil.

To meet with a stroke: patients' experiences and aspects seen through a screen of crises.

The aim of this study was to elucidate the experiences of stroke victims during the course of disease and the first few months after discharge. Ten individuals, recently having suffered their first manifest stroke with lasting neurological symptoms, narrated their experiences and gave their views at two different appointments during the first few months after discharge. A deductive approach was applied, on the basis of the theory of developmental crises. The analyses of the interviews were performed using a phenomenological hermeneutic method inspired by the philosophy of Ricoeur. The analyses disclosed phenomena signifying developmental crises in all the cases, though the crises profiles were marked by the sequelae the individuals suffered after stroke and by the age-specific stages of which they were in the middle. The solution of the crises was from being reached within the period of data collection, as the interviews were performed relatively early after home-coming and the individuals were in the middle of grasping their new situation. The phenomenon "to meet with a stroke' seems to challenge the whole of the individual's being. The study calls attention to the need for awareness of this matter, which should be indicated to a much greater extent in nursing care and education than has been done until to date.

Ethics at the Limit of Reason

The manner in which deconstruction has recently articulated itself as a philosophy of limit opens discussion as to the broader question of the nature and extent of any philosophy today at the limit of reason. Turning to this broader context and repeating this celebrated Kantian theme allows a contrast between deconstruction and other possibilities of philosophy today at the limit, thereby revealing the sense in which deconstruction can be considered a philosophy of limit. It is my working hypothesis that the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, precisely as a philosophy at the limit,' offering itself in a relation to the tradition different from that of deconstruction, provides a rich and positive account of alterity, and at once takes account of the positive elements of deconstruction.2 This will be shown by ( 1 ) reflecting on the very basis of the commitment of these two forms of philosophy to sense and meaning, (2) by comparing these two differing developments of philosophy as attentive to its limit, and (3) by taking into consideration extensions beyond this limit initiated by Kant and brought to culmination by Ricoeur. It is precisely the tension between limit and extension, so fundamental to Ricoeur's philosophy, that allows his recent ethics, cast against this backdrop, to take place within the polarity between ethical foundations and the moral principle of obligation. And it is in the context of such an ethico-moral philosophy that we must attempt to confront the challenge from deconstruction. If such a challenge is to be accepted in its extreme formulation, the question must be posed regarding the sense in which any ethical philosophy can be considered worthwhile, since it would seem that to deconstruct ethics or to engage it in a deconstructive or "clotural reading" involves a fundamental style of thinking at odds with such a project. Indeed, even the philosophy of Ricoeur is submitted to this sweep of deconstruction. Let us turn now briefly to explore the notion of limit. I do not pretend to treat exhaustively the problem of philosophy at its limit, end, closure or interruption, but merely to shed light on the problem by turning briefly to reflect further on this notion of limit, showing how the positions of Ricoeur and deconstruction fit into that context, thus contrasting these two recent efforts toward ethics or against ethics.4 In focusing on philosophy at the limit, we can bring together and correlate two distinct senses of limit, one emerging from Kant's transcendental idealism, the other from Peirce's view of secondness within interaction. Here we follow the lead of Drucilla Cornell's account.5 The designation of deconstruction as a philosophy of limit in the first sense is somewhat an extrapolation of the Kantian sense of limit.6 Drucilla Cornell's recasting of this designation has the positive effect of exposing the "quasitranscendental conditions" establishing a system as a system, showing that this very establishment implies a "beyond" which is excluded. The system and any determination of meaning allow closure and exclusion at the expense of openness. Hence, deconstruction as a philosophy of limit at the end of metaphysics challenges us to be open to the excluded, thus affording us a "golden opportunity" rather than a crises of termination.' Cornell renders deconstruction as a philosophy of limit that is open to the beyond, to unimagined possibilities, and hence as a call for a radical transformation of the present. This can perhaps be seen to be the other side of the closure. Deconstruction, then, questions traditional philosophy's ability to get at the "beyond" in its discourse, i.e., in its saying of what cannot be Said. The second sense of deconstruction as a philosophy of limit attempts to incorporate C. S. Peirce's notion of secondness in his own opposition to Hegelian idealism. As Cornell says, by secondness Peirce indicates "the materiality that persists beyond any attempt to conceptualize it. …

Nurses' narrations about suicidal psychiatric inpatients

Seventeen Norwegian and two Danish registered nurses specialized in psychiatric nursing narrated their experiences in caring for suicidal psychiatric inpatients. The interview texts were transcribed and interpreted using a phenomenologic-hermeneutic method, inspired by the philosophy of Ricoeur. Two main themes with subthemes were found Distance, which included compassion without emotional identification, mistrusting the patient, being responsible for the patient's actions, feelings of guilt, rejecting the patient, being rejected by the patient, and focus on the nurse, and Closeness, which included compassion with emotional identification, trusting the patient through contact, responsibility for the patient making his or her own agenda, being rejected by the patient, temporarily, listening to the patient, and focus on the patient. These findings were interpreted in relation to the ethical demand made on the nurses in their interaction with suicidal patients.

Paul Ricoeur: his life and his work

One of the major intellectual figures of the twentieth century, Paul Ricoeur has influenced a generation of thinkers. In this, the first philosophically informed biography of Ricoeur, student, colleague, and confidant Charles E. provides an unusually accessible look at both the philosophy of this extraordinary thinker and the pivotal experiences that influenced his development.A valuable introduction to Ricoeur; highly recommended.-- Library Journal [A] lively introduction to the life and thought of one of this century's most notable philosophers.--Norman Wirzba, Christian Century Reagan lucidly explains Ricoeur's difficult philosophy while shining overdue light on the personality behind it.--Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer Combines biographical and philosophical essays with a more personal memoir that makes Ricoeur's humane and magnanimous nature abundantly evident. Four revealing interviews, coupled with photographs, and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources, complete this illuminating study.-- Choice

Can There Be a Science of Action? Paul Ricoeur

Essential to the Greek heritage of Western Culture has been its determination to be delivered from the vagaries of mere opinion through the search for certain knowledge. Greek philosophy, and Western philosophy in its wake, was at great pains to distinguish clearly between what could be known with certainty (episteme) and what could be accepted as a more or less vague opinion (doxa). This distinction between episteme and doxa, first articulated by Plato, may have rested on the popular distinction between what can be known by sight and what can be known from hearing. What I know from having seen personally is considered more secure as a knowledge than what I obtain from hearsay. Sight involves personal presence and experience whereas hearsay relies on the witness of others, on the authenticity or veracity of others. As a consequence knowledge from hearing is second-hand knowledge. I am not as personally present or engaged in what presents itself to my hearing as I am to what presents itself or is present in my seeing. The aftermath of the distinction between episteme and doxa, between certain knowledge and opinion, is to be found in the progressive refinement of the paradigm towards the eye of reason, and in our time in Dilthey's split between the empirical and human sciences and of C. P. Snow's distinction between the two cultures. The dominance of the visual paradigm in Western philosophy is shown in the preference of the epistemic over the doxic. In this essay I want to explore the epistemic-doxic status of the knowledge of human action. I do so guided by the recent work of Paul Ricoeur particularly in his masterly Oneself as Another.2 In Oneself as Another as well as in two other major texts, Time and Narrative and From Text to Action,4 Ricoeur has elaborated a hermeneutical approach to a theory of action with a specific emphasis on its epistemological status. His position is unique inasmuch as it safeguards both an ontology of human action and an epistemology. For Ricoeur, understanding and explanation are not unbreachable opposites. There can be no understanding without explanation and no explanation without understanding. Both are required for a proper application of action to the various spheres of life where action is at stake. At issue in this essay is the type of explanation that in Ricoeur's view is available to the understanding of human action. Before delving into Ricoeur's analysis of the epistemological status of the theory of action, it is worthwhile to paint the larger picture within which Ricoeur develops this theory of action. His venture into practical philosophy must be seen in the light of his perception of the current crisis of Western civilization. For Ricoeur, a pivotal event marks our era, which calls for a new thrust in philosophy. He identifies this event at the level of human consciousness as the shattering ofthe Cartesian cogito. Nietzsche and the Deconstructionists of this century perpetrated this humiliation of the human subject.5 The overevaluation and exaltation of the human subject as primary certainty and ground that played such an important role in the idealist rendition of the human subject in a dominant strand of interpretation of Descartes (Kant, Fichte, and Husserl) lost its force through the critique of Nietzsche. For Nietzsche, philosophy's claim to give certitude and to ground science seemed only a rhetorical strategy, one that ended up in the illusion of a solid foundation. Ricoeur's practical philosophy is an attempt to forge a new space for the human self beyond these epochal movements of the undue exaltation of the subject by the Cartesian tradition on the one hand and the declared rhetorical emptiness of the human subject by the deconstructionists on the other hand. But with the demise of foundationalism, the purely rhetorical position is not an acceptable alternative. If foundationalism promised too much certainty, deconstructionism holds out too little. …

Stories about becoming a hospice nurse: Reasons, expectations, hopes, and concerns

Two months after the opening of Sweden's first purpose-built free-standing hospice, 19 nurses were asked to narrate their reasons, expectations, hopes, and concerns about their future work as hospice nurses. The stories were analyzed using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach inspired by the philosophy of Ricoeur. The tension between endurance and enjoyment seems to be the essential feature of the nurses' stories. The nurses who were experienced in terminal care hope and expect to enjoy being hospice nurses, provided they are able to give good terminal care, that is, nursing care that is experienced as being meaningful. Those nurses who are inexperienced in terminal care hope and expect that they will be able to give and to grow as people and to develop as professionals, but do not yet know what to make of their experiences. Possible implications of the nurses' reasons, expectations, hopes, and concerns are discussed, and an understanding of the tension between endurance and enjoyment of being a hospice nurse is presented.