Only one nurse spoke directly about personal limitationsthat limited her capacity to respond toothers. This nurse’s narrative reflects the disjuncturebetween maintaining integrity and enactingthe kind of open-ended responsiveness that is oftenassociated with caring (Walker, 1998). The factthat only one nurse would include this story as partof her narrative suggests that certain stereotypesmay persist among nurses themselves about whatis expected of them and the stories that they feelable to tell about falling short: