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Abstract

Transcriptions were made of interviews held in Vietnam with five nurses, five people affected by stroke (aged 28-60), and with one relative each. Their stories were analysed as texts by means of a phenomenological hermeneutic method. The role of the nurses in Vietnam appeared to differ from that usually ascribed to nurses in Western institutionalized care. In the former a relative was expected to carry out basic care during the acute stage and to assist socioeconomically thereafter. The interviewees spoke of family bonds in the past, present, and future tenses when narrating their experiences of stroke as nurses, patients, and relatives. This was interpreted as an indication of a consciousness of an essential relatedness. Nurses were aware of playing a temporary and secondary role mainly as assistants: firstly to the doctor by carrying out orders and reporting, secondly to the stroke patient and his or her family by carrying out advanced nursing procedures and giving support The advantages and disadvantages of involving the family in nursing care can be revealed by obtaining views from a different culture, which can provide a contrast against which constructive criticism of the Western nursing tradition can be made.

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Patients',Relatives',and Nurses' Experience of Stroke in Northern Vietnam

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