Recording the content of the caring process.

In the present study, a theoretical basis for the content of caring and nursing documentation is described. The goal was to find out to what extent documentation based on the theory might reveal the patients' experience and views of their care. Documenting according to Eriksson's (1997, 2001) caring science theory was tried out in an intervention study. The content of nursing care records was evaluated before the intervention and after completing it. After the intervention the nurses' experiences of the theory-based recording were collected by means of questionnaires. According to the evaluation performed after the intervention, the content of the documentation had improved on several wards. The nurses paid more attention to the patients' views than before when documenting care in the way introduced in the study. According to the results nurses need strong support from their managers in order to successfully be able to implement a theoretical basis of documentation of care.