Aim: The aim of the study was to describe how the basic concepts, human being, health, suffering, caringand culture appear in perioperative practice in order to obtain an understanding of the concepts in practice.Methods: A hermeneutic text interpretation of results from ten previous studies and reports fromperioperative research meetings with co- researchers was conducted in order to gain an understanding ofthe concepts in practice.Results: The basic concepts were understood as; The human being – the patient and the nurse. Patient is asuffering human being who has been betrayed by the body; a body that needs to undergo surgery. Nurse -the caring human being, whose ethos is embedded in human dignity and emerges in their caring acts.Health – to be a unique human being: someone who wants to be taken seriously wants to become involved,to be considered a resource and to establish a communion. Suffering – a struggle between good and evil:Suffering exists in different forms. Suffering in care can be a result of the staff behaviour towards thepatient and towards each other, how caring/the work is organized, or how the nurses’ time with the patientsis planned. Caring – to be there for the patient; the nurses’ care for the patient, taking the patient seriouslyand safeguarding the patient’s dignity. The culture – material and spiritual culture: human dignity is theethos of the perioperative culture and appears as confirmed or violated dignity and value conflicts.