The Caring Self: The Older Adult Care Providers’ Experiences

This study explored the meaning of the caring experiences of nurses and caregivers in a private older adult facility. Using Hermeneutic phenomenology the study interviewed ten informants and data gathered were analyzed using NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software. Findings revealed four themes: a) My mission, my passion; b) My Challenge, my victory; c) Caring beyond boundaries and d) My life, my salvation. The study concluded that the caring self of the care providers consist of three dimensions of caring: confident care, strategic care and enduring care. This became the basis in the development of a theory that states that the caring self is the foundation of all the caring experiences that enables one to become an effective care provider, otherwise known as the care agent.