Being authentic and being a chameleon: nurse–patient interaction revisited

This paper explores contradictory understandings of nurse–patient interaction arising through an exploration of ‘being authentic’ and ‘being a chameleon’. The concepts arose during a critical praxis research study exploring nurse–patient relationships in the context of life‐threatening or terminal illness. Being authentic can be understood as a dominant view in the nursing literature of the nurse–patient relationship, incorporating the value of being genuine. However, we argue that this concept offers only a partial and inadequate framework from which to understand nurse–patient interaction. The paper argues that nurse–patient relationships develop intersubjectively, with both the nurse and the patient choosing to reveal or conceal aspects of themselves in response to their interactions. Intersubjectivity as a concept provided the nurses in this study with a means for understanding how the nurse and the patient each contribute to interactions; nurse–patient relationships being understood as mutually constructed. These ideas are explored in this paper using examples from the nurses’ stories, along with the implications raised for nursing practice.