Understanding the world of the patient, the suffering human being: the new clinical paradigm from nursing to caring.

Discussions about a "new" paradigm--a more authentic, autonomous, and clinically practical form of nursing--have occurred for the last few years. A change of paradigm implies a change in the core of theory. The new core presupposes a return to the original historical conditions of caring. This article reports on a study that used a hermeneutical research approach to find basic patterns in different caring cultures. The patient's world stands out as a world of suffering. The patient's experiences of suffering, poor health, and illness are the starting point of the clinical paradigm.