Being overwhelmed by the feeling of having a home and family : One aspect of the meaning of being dependent on care. A study of one patient and two of his nurses.

• RATIONALE: This article is part of an ongoing study which aims at disclosing the meaning of being dependent on care. From a larger body of data, interviews with one patient and two of his nurses were selected to study. AIM: The aim was to deepen understanding of the meaning of being dependent on care when this appears desirable for the patient. METHODS: A phenomenological-hermeneutic approach was used to interpret the material. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: The interpretation discloses the meaning of being dependent on care as an overwhelming, unfamiliar feeling of having a home and family. The patient is beguiled into believing he is the ruler in an established relationship and his dependency on care gives him an opportunity to be surrounded by loving, altruistic, helpful people. Being dependent on care is overwhelming and irresistible, i.e. coveted, but simultaneously it is like walking on thin ice, i.e. treacherous. The irresistible desire concerns being unconditionally cared about. The danger is that this 'family membership' will not last. It is brought to the patient because of his dependency on care and it is based on his terms. There is reflection about the patient being unprepared for dealing with his own world of loneliness.

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