The family's experience of vigilance: challenges for nursing.

The article reports a qualitative study examining vigilance, or the close, protective involvement of families who stay with their hospitalized relatives. Participants described the meanings, patterns, and day-to-day experience of vigilance through five categories of meaning: commitment to care, emotional upheaval, dynamic nexus, transition, and resilience. These categories of meaning sensitize nurses to the family's experience of vigilance and have significant implications for nursing practice.