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The aim of this study was to elucidate municipal night registered nurses’ (RNs) experiences of the meaning of caring in nursing. The research context involved all night duty RNs working in municipal care of older people in a medium-sized municipality located in central Sweden. The meaning of caring in nursing was experienced as: caring for by advocacy, superior responsibility in caring, and consultative nursing service. The municipal night RNs’ experience of caring is interpreted as meanings in paradoxes: ‘being close at distance’, the condition of ‘being responsible with insignificant control’, and ‘being interdependently independent’. The RNs’ experience of the meaning of caring involves focusing on the care recipient by advocating their perspectives. The meaning of caring in this context is an endeavour to grasp an overall caring responsibility by responding tovocational and personal demands regarding the issue of being a RN, in guaranteeing ethical, qualitative and competent care for older people.

Aim. The aim of the study was to describe nurses' conception of reflection in their working situation. Background. To be a municipal night duty registered nurse in Sweden means to shoulder nursing care responsibility for numerous units with older people in need of care. Two night nurses share nursing care responsibility for up to 1300 people. In nursing research, reflection is an often-mentioned phenomenon discussed with advantages and benefits within the 'traditional fields' of nursing (hospital context). A question to ask is, how do night nurses having an untraditional amount of nursing care responsibility conceptualise and experience reflection in their working situation? Design. A phenomenographic methodology was used. Methods. Data were collected by interviewing all nurses (n = 7) in a medium-sized municipality bordering a metropolitan area of Sweden. Results. The nurses' conceptions of reflection are categorised as 'Field of applications' (an instrument for interpreting, a strategy for handling the working situation and an approach to learning) and 'Field of prerequisites' (presence facilitates reflection; flexibility implies reflection; courage in thought and activity increases reflection). Conclusion. The findings reveal that reflection in the nurses' working situation is more than an instrument for learning, understanding and encouragement for change and improvement. Reflection is conceptualised as an instrument for interpreting nursing care situations, which requires courage and is facilitated by presence and flexibility. Reflection is also conceptualised as an approach to handling, managing and coping with a sometimes impossible working situation that includes nursing responsibility for hundreds of older people and can sometimes entail difficulties and stress. Relevance to clinical practice. The findings showed that reflection has a broader use than had earlier been described. Deliberate use of reflection could mean improved nursing practice. This guides nursing managers to pay attention to the phenomenon as an instrument for nursing care improvement.

Aim  The aim of the present study was to examine the support night nurses’ give to staff in community night nursing.

Background  Studies have shown that support given to staff is one of night registered nurses’ (RNs’) experiences of the meaning of caring. This support, that community RNs display for staff in night-time care, is sparsely described.

Methods  All community night-duty nurses in a medium-sized municipal in Sweden participated in the present study. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data from observations.

Results  The support given by RNs to staff is described using three themes: (1) a conditional supporting stance, (2) preparing propitious conditions for caring and (3) confidence in the abilities of individual staff members and adaptation to their individual needs. The results reveal that RNs consider support to staff in terms of nursing leadership.

Conclusions  Out of ‘concern for the staff’ the RNs try to be there for them, which corresponds to nursing leadership. Such concern also arises from the RNs’ awareness that by giving support to staff this affects the staffs’ caring for older people.

Implications for nursing management  The current municipal social care organization of community nursing of older people in which RNs have extensive responsibilities with insufficient control, is a working condition with a risk for decreased quality of care and a high risk for work-related stress syndrome.

The aim of the present study was to examine the support night nurses give to staff in community night nursing. Studies have shown that support given to staff is one of night registered nurses (RNs) experiences of the meaning of caring. This support, that community RNs display for staff in night-time care, is sparsely described.

All community night-duty nurses in a medium-sized municipal in Sweden participated in the present study. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data from observations. The support given by RNs to staff is described using three themes: (1) a conditional supporting stance, (2) preparing propitious conditions for caring and (3) confidence in the abilities of individual staff members and adaptation to their individual needs. The results reveal that RNs consider support to staff in terms of nursing leadership.Conclusions Out of concern for the staff  the RNs try to be there for them, which corresponds to nursing leadership. Such concern also arises from the RNs awareness that by giving support to staff this affects the staffs caring for older people. Implications for nursing management The current municipal social care organization of community nursing of older people in which RNs have extensive responsibilities with insufficient control, is a working condition with a risk for decreased quality of care and a high risk for work-related stress syndrome.

Few research studies have focused on nurses' working conditions for caring provided at night, and these studies have mainly described nurses' work in hospital settings, not in a municipal, social-care context. In Swedish municipal care, nurses have responsibility for hundreds of older people in need of care. This working condition compromises caring encounters; instead the nurses' caring is mainly mediated through care staff (or relatives). In considering that caring based on caring encounters is fundamental to ethical nursing practice questions leads to the aim: to explore Swedish municipal night nurses' experiences of their working conditions for caring in nursing. All municipal night-duty nurses (n = 7) in a medium-sized community in Sweden participated in interviews, while six of them also wrote diaries. Thematic content analysis has been used in analysing the data. The findings revealed that the nurses experienced their working conditions for caring in nursing in the themes of Dependency in the Organisation and Other Staff, Vocational Responsibility, Deficiency in Conditions for Caring and Autonomous Caring. The findings illustrate privileged, as well as, poor working conditions for caring in nursing. The nurses' role as consultants emerge as their main function. The consultant function implies that nurses do not participate in ordinary bed-side caring, which makes it easier for them to find time for caring in situations that arise when nurses' skills, expertise and authority are called upon. Conversely the consultancy function entails short-term solution of complex caring problems, which can signify deficient caring due to prevailing working conditions. The findings also point to nurses' possible problems in fulfilling their own and vocational demands for ethics in the practice of caring in nursing related to existing working conditions.