State of the Science of Nursing Presence Revisited: Knowledge for Preserving Nursing Presence Capability

Nursing presence has been a central focus for theorists, researchers, educators, and practicing professional nurses for over a half a century. Knowledge development and measurement of this experience is crucial at a time when human communication is becoming more impersonal, and nursing presence capability is potentially declining. A literature search was conducted using Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and other discipline-specific databases. Extensive manual review of all relevant journals, reference lists, and additional publications were explored and synthesized. This article provides an updated state of the science report on nursing presence in regard to cross-discipline conceptual comparison, nursing theoretic model development, and instrument development.