In a constantly changeable world, men’s violence against women continues to be an unchanging, ever present factor in intimate relationships. Most of the women seek help, sometimes from the public healthcare service.
This study is a result of interviews with nurses who treated abused women in their medical practices. The theoretical description and analysis of the concept of acting on a sudden impulse comes from Martinsen’s caring perspectives and Løgstrup’s philosophical theories.Based on a phenomenology-hermeneutics method, the study analyzes the importance of nurses’ ability to grasp and comprhend a situation and therefore act. The nurses described how they perceived specific situations, were open towards impressions and then acted. They described how they were guided by a sudden impulse, which contributed to a concrete solution in a difficult situation. The nurses could not prepare themselves to receive this sudden impulse beforehand, since this sudden idea sprung out of the situation, ,a one-time happening only. Sudden impulses are indispensable resources in the meeting with patients and can be of decisive importance in the care of abused women.