ABSTRACT
The generation of theory occurs around a core category. The taxonomies reflect the construction of the core categories from individual substantive codes. The taxonomic organisation of the core categories involved differentiating the various levels of specificity of the data, judged during the process of comparative analysis. The most salient core category of nurses’ action is the presentation of the nurse. Each code serves as a label identifying an element of the action of a nurse or group of nurses and is accompanied by an illustrative verbatim excerpt typical of the data assembled for each code, to ensure they are representative of the informants’ accounts. With the patient group, in particular, there was no certainty that they would differentiate their evaluations of the care received from nurses from those of other health workers. The types of attitude or manner described may convey the nurse’s emotional orientation, such as being open’, or ‘happy and cheerful’ as well as being ‘bossy’ or ‘aggressive’.
