Parkhide Hassani
Jhila Abedsaiedi
Camelia Rohani

Introduction: Integration of theoretical knowledge and nursing practice has led to the creation of four central concepts in nursing including individual, health, nursing, and environment. Currently, greater emphasis is placed on the two concepts of health and care as the core of nursing. Thus, the purpose of the present qualitative study was to explain the concept of clinical care in internal-surgical nursing and its changes through time. Method: This study was part of an extensive grounded theory research on ۱۴ clinical nurses, clinical educators, and nursing students of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. The participants were selected, first, using purposive sampling method, and then, theoretical sampling. Data were collected through individual semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Data were codified using MAXQD ۲۰۰۷ software (VERBI GmbH, Berlin, Germany) and analyzed using grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, ۱۹۹۸). Results: Data analysis revealed the ۳ main themes of "essence of care in internal-surgical nursing", "clinical origin of care", and "the decline in nursing". Moreover, ۹ subcategories were extracted including "clinical essence of internal-surgical nursing", "patient-centered care", "peaceful conscience of nurses", "meeting the basic needs of the patient", "perception of the patient", "specialization", "alienation with role", "detachment from clinical care", and "dependency". Conclusion: Care is the essence of nursing, in particular internal-surgical nursing, and the clinical environment is the care delivery site. The changes and challenges in providing nursing care necessitate the use of moral approaches, such as designing targeted educational programs and a student-centered curriculum, with emphasis on moral conscience

Care, Medical-surgical nursing, Clinical Practice, Grounded theory, qualitative research