Abstract

Objective: The role of surgical nurses is very important in the surgical process defined as the pre-operative, during and post-operative period. The aim of the study is to determine the metaphors of nurses who work in surgical units regarding surgical nursing, in the light of metaphors that are used to export the world of thought and reflect the inner world of individuals.

Methods: The population of the study consisted of surgical nurses (n = 70) working in a state hospital in Bartın. The study was conducted with 62 surgical nurses due to voluntary participation, unavailability and questionnaires returned empty. Data were collected with a semi-structured questionnaire. It was categorized metaphors and sociodemographic characteristics variables and interpreted with content analysis.

Results: 41 metaphors about surgical nursing emerged from the study. The most used metaphors were; “mom, war, life, superhero and art”. It was seen that the second most used metaphors were; “corrosive, merciful, savior and loved”. 17,6 % of nurses find surgical nursing “corrosive” and those who find surgical nursing corrosive are mostly nurses who worked 11 years or more. It was also detected that emergency nurses use metaphors that are in the corrosive category, and operating room nurses use more of the metaphors that are the most loved.

Conclusion: The metaphor perceptions of surgical nurses vary from clinic to clinic, how long they have been a surgical nurse and producing metaphors. This situation reminds that the clinics have their own specific characteristic and how it effects the nurses. Specifically, for surgical nurses, who produce the metaphors from the “corrosive” category, it is thought that solutions should be found to prevent them from wearing out.