Intensive care nurses' experiences of caring. Part 1: Consideration of the concept of caring.

Curiosity as to what other intensive care nurses experienced as caring practice in a high-tech environment such as intensive care was prompted by a dilemma that arose in the author's own clinical practice. One consequence was this study which took place in a 12-bedded intensive and coronary care unit (ICU). Although there is a vast body of literature discussing caring in nursing, little is related to the intensive care environment. The first part of this paper contains discussion of the concept of caring related to this aspect of nursing, thus addressing the initial stages of the research process. This was guided by the research question 'What is caring?' Part two of this paper will present the phenomenological research study designed to answer this question.