The experience of suffering: conceptual clarification and theoretical definition

This paper is concerned with the phenomenon of human suffering and is an attempt to justify and begin theoretical development of this phenomenon for nursing science. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section describes the interest of nursing science in the phenomenon and critically examines relevant literature in order to further conceptualize development and clarification. This section concludes with a theoretical definition of suffering derived from this critique. Suffering is defined as an individual's experience of threat to self and is a meaning given to events such as pain or loss. The second section elaborates on this definition and examines how it can inform theoretical discussion in two areas with import for nursing--the patient's experience of suffering and the nurse's experience of patient suffering. The final section briefly considers some implications for clinical research.