Caring for Individuals Displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma: The Lived Experience of Student Nurses

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the experience of caring for individuals and families left homeless and then displaced in the aftermath of destructive hurricanes. The nursing situations, which are reflective stories from the practice of seven undergraduate nursing students, were interpreted to uncover the meaning of caring for others who have experienced disastrous situations. The interpreted findings are three thematic threads that cut across all the texts: building connections to others, appreciating the wholeness of persons, and learning the meaning of caring in nursing. The wholeness of this inquiry is presented using a metaphor to describe the fullness of lives lived, despite being left homeless and displaced by disastrous hurricanes.