This article is intended to explain the Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to researchers concerned with patient-nurse interactions, nursing practices and nurses’ professional and individual selves and identities. It emphasizes both the field of care work and nurses’ personal characteristics. Nursing is a therapeutic interpersonal process that is intended to promote individuals’ wellbeing and health. However, very few studies have evaluated how it developed in a systematic way. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus can lead the way for nurses who would like to understand patient-nurse interactions, nursing practices and the field of care work. Habitus affects how nurses approach their patients, how they understand and interpret patient conditions and their needs. Therefore, habitus affects how nurses understand and interpret the status and care needs of patients under the circumstances including their individual characteristics. The field of care work is also a metaphor for a social site where nurses engage in care-related activities. Ultimately, nursing habitus is developed by both individual and structural factors that are complex and diverse. It affects nurses’ careers and motivation to provide services. Assessing patient-nurse interactions, nursing practices and nurses’ professional and individual self and identities in this way can affect the quality of care positively. © 2019 by Journal of Psychiatric Nursing.
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