Abstract

Objectives: The purpose is to develop Nightingale’s body concept by comparing it with the Merleau-Ponty’s existential phenomenology. Methodology: This is an hermeneutic-qualitative analysis of the text Notes on Nursing: What is and what is not, together with Phenomenology of Perception. Given the confrontation with a text, the instrumental of interpretation has been sustained on the philosophical hermeneutics proposed by Hans-Georg Gadamer. Results: Florence in Notes on Nursing rudimentarily proposes a comprehensive system of the body as the axis of appearance of reality, where the nursing task is to understand how this appearance of the patient configures the perception of his world and cooperates in uniting him to a new vital situation that requires a perception of spirit in the face of his own recovery, born from dialogue with Merleau-Ponty. Conclusion and implication for practice: Understanding what is involved is essential for the professional nursing practice. Since Nightingale then, what is essential for discipline must be understood as the appearance of the reality of the patient to intervene in him as a whole.