ObjectiveTo understand school nurses' perceptions and experiences of moral distress related to COVID‐19 case management in the school systems.DesignA descriptive qualitative study guided by Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis.SampleTwelve school nurses practicing in Colorado from December 2021 to January 2022.MeasurementsSemi‐structured interviews about school nurses’ experiences of COVID‐19. Investigators utilized an iterative reflexive thematic analysis process engaging the participants' and researchers' subjective experiences.ResultsFour themes were created: (1) keeping kids and the community safe, (2) caught in the middle of the “tug of war” between health and politics, (3) distress amid an ocean of COVID‐19 uncertainty, and (4) visibility as a bright spot shining through the COVID‐19 cloud.ConclusionsTwo research questions examined school nurses’ experiences of moral distress and their role and scope of practice that affected their relationships in the educational and public health systems. The results of this study confirm the important role of school nurses and interprofessional case management in school environments in the fight against infectious diseases and pandemics. Building stronger relationships between school nurses and public health is imperative for future collaborative and cohesive public health responses to pandemics.

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Humans are continuously storying and re-storying themselves through language and socially organizing language into narratives to create meaning through experiences. Storytelling through narrative inquiry can bridge world experiences and co-create new moments in time that honor human patterns as wholeness and illuminate the potential for evolving consciousness. This article aims to introduce narrative inquiry methodology as a caring and relational research approach aligned with the worldview grounding Unitary Caring Science. This article uses nursing as an exemplar to inform other human science disciplines interested in using narrative inquiry in research, while defining essential components of narrative inquiry through the theoretical lens of Unitary Caring Science. By exploring research questions through this renewed understanding of narrative inquiry informed by the ontological and ethical tenets of Unitary Caring Science, healthcare disciplines will be knowledgeable and prepared to facilitate knowledge development to contribute to the sustainment of humanity and healthcare beyond eliminating the cause of illness and into the experience of living well with illness. The co-creative process of narrative inquiry as a caring and healing inquiry can guide collective wisdom, moral force, and emancipatory actions by seeing and valuing human experiences through an evolved holistic and humanizing lens.

Disenfranchised grief is experienced during bereavement loss and after the loss of something personal, physical, or psychological in which a person lacks societal witnessing, empathy, or validation of their loss. A concept analysis was performed to identify the antecedents, attributes, and consequences of disenfranchised grief. A model case was developed to assist nurses in identifying patterns of disenfranchised grief. Grounded within the Unitary Caring Science paradigm, a new definition of disenfranchised grief was developed. Recommendations framed through the lens of Unitary Caring Science will guide nursing research and practice to enfranchise and humanize the grief experience.