Human becoming-guided patient-centered care: A new model transforms nursing practice

Abstract

Nurses working on an orthopedic surgery and rheumatology unit in a large teaching hospital in Canada participated in a 24-month research project to evaluate what happens when nurses are provided 20% of their time for the purpose of learning and self-development. Half of the teaching-learning was aligned with the commitment of the organization to advance patient-centered care, and in particular patient-centered care guided by the nursing theory, human becoming. The other half was self-directed by nurse participants according to their learning interests and self-development priorities. The purpose of this column is to describe the teaching-learning and mentoring processes in which the nurses were engaged and to highlight the subsequent changes in nursing practice that have happened on the unit from the perspectives of nurse participants. © 2006 Sage Publications.