A Hermeneutic Concept Analysis of Serving - A Challenging Concept for Nursing Administration

Abstract

Background: The concept (to) serve has been used in nursing administrations since Florence Nightingale, but the development of knowledge in caring science and a clear and current meaning of the concept need to be more recognized. Aim: The overall aim is to, from a caring science perspective and through a hermeneutic approach, deepen the understanding of the meanings of the concept serve and provide a formatted understanding of serving in nursing administrations. The aim is to analyse the meaning of the concept serve in the Swedish language and describe a semantic investigation of the concept. The aim is further to deepen the essence of knowledge in nursing administration in the linguistic map of caring science. Methods: The semantic analysis strategy has been applied according to Peep Koort’s thinking and theoretical model and later developed by Katie Eriksson towards a hermeneutic concept analysis. Etymological dictionaries, Swedish dictionaries from 1850 to 2008, dictionaries in other languages, dictionaries from medieval Swedish language and medieval Latin were used for describing the concept of serve. Results: According to hermeneutical thinking, it is possible to understand being through concepts and language since they are connected. This is a universal ontological construction and fundamental to understand the nature of the concept serve. The results show that this concept is essential in nursing administrations for the reason that it describes what serve and serving is in the context of nursing leadership. Conclusion: The concept of serve has developed towards an unclear and unarticulated meaning and perception in the modern Swedish language. To serve and serving gives the inner core and the deepest meaning for nursing, nursing administration and caring science.