Struggling to Find a Balance

Managed care and bottom-line economics have become the norm in the health care delivery system. Concern by nurses for humanistic caring and the preservation of the nurse–patient relationship is growing. Can the role of nursing as caring be sustained in the prevailing economic health care system? Could caring be viewed as having economic value? To address these issues, a qualitative grounded theory study of the nurse–patient relationship was conducted in a for-profit health care system. This article focuses on the findings from the research and the substantive theory of “struggling to find a balance,” which refers to sustaining the caring ideal in a new reality controlled by costs.