Experiences of the transplant nurses caring for renal transplant patients in an acuity-adaptable patient room

This article describes transplant nurses' experiences in caring for renal transplant patients in the acuity-adaptable patient room using Husserl's descriptive phenomenology. The setting was a twice-redesignated magnet urban tertiary center in the Southwest United States with 14 acuity-adaptable patient rooms. Audiotaped interviews were analyzed using Colaizzi's method and a purposive sample of 10 transplant nurses. Three theme clusters emerged that described the essence of the transplant nurses' experiences in caring for renal transplant patients in the acuity-adaptable patient room: Patient and family comfort: "..I think their anxiety of just not knowing what's going on - that need is being met." Nurse empowerment: "..Her urine output was going down to the 40s and so I had to call the surgeon recommending that we maybe change the normal saline to half normal for replacement." Acuity-adaptable patient room future potential: "I wish that all patients had this kind of access." The nurses felt empowered in caring for renal transplant patients in the acuity-adaptable patient room thereby creating a healing environment for the patient and the family.