Abstract
Although there is evidence to support nursing as a moral practice, there is no formula or dose to describe how much the nurse is obliged to risk in order to meet the ethical demand placed on him or her as a professional and to preserve the vulnerable trust essential to establish and maintain a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship. On the basis of research and significant statements from interviews with five participants, this article discusses examples of nurses’ moral responsibility stemming from knowledge of consciousness about the value of presence inherent in the relationship between nurse and patient. The challenge for the nurse is to understand that the trust and power embedded in his/her meeting with patients entails a demand for attentiveness and an ethical obligation to make changes from the stories shared by those who, through a disruption in life, find themselves in the presence of a nurse.
