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Postphenomenology in Nursing: Understanding the Human-Technology Relationship in Patient Care

Document Type : Review Article

Authors
Abbas Heydari 1
Hamid Saboorifar 2
1 Professor, Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
2 PhD student in Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
10.22038/nnj.2026.94031.1538
Abstract
Background: The integration of digital technologies in healthcare has fundamentally transformed nursing practice, reshaping nurse–patient interactions, clinical decision-making, and professional identity. Despite growing research on technology in nursing, philosophical understanding of these transformations remains limited.
Aim: This article introduces post-phenomenology as a conceptual framework for analyzing the complex and mediating relationships between nurses, technology, and patient care, emphasizing how technologies actively shape perceptions, actions, and ethical considerations.
Methods: The study employed a conceptual and philosophical analysis based on post-phenomenological research. Relevant literature from 2018 to 2025 was examined with a focus on key concepts, including technological mediation, embodiment, hermeneutic relations, variability, and co-constitution, to explore how technologies influence nursing practice and nurse–patient interactions.
Results: Technologies such as electronic health records, remote health platforms, and AI-based monitoring systems function as active mediators in nursing, shaping workflows, clinical judgment, and nurse–patient relationships. Nurses develop embodied and hermeneutic skills to interpret technological data, while emerging intelligent technologies create quasi-other interactions that introduce shared responsibility and ethical complexity. Post-phenomenological analysis reveals a co-constitutive process in which nursing practices and technologies mutually shape one another.
Conclusion: Post-phenomenology provides a critical lens for understanding the human–technology interplay in nursing, empowering nurses in digital environments, enhancing clinical judgment, and supporting human-centered care. The study highlights implications for nursing practice, ethics, education, and paves the way for empirical research on the lived experience of technology in clinical settings.
Keywords
Nursing
Technology
Human-Technology Interaction
Postphenomenology
Clinical Practice
Telehealth
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Navid No
Volume 29, Issue 98
Summer 2026
Pages 93-105