Refocusing a Nursing Lens Distorted by Perfection: The Call for a Mid-range Theory This article describes the concept of the nursing lens and the nursing gaze. The nursing lens is a term describing how nurses view their own safety, their practice, their environment and the clients/families they care for. Although a difficult concept to grasp, the nursing lens and the nursing gaze can be described as a looking glass, The gaze is the nurse who peers into the glass and the lens is the device itself. It is basically what nurses perceive and what influences their perception. One factor explored is the concept of perfection and how it distorts the nursing lens. We as humans are fallible creatures. However errors in nursing such as medication errors, failure to take adequate precautions and inadequate monitoring post-procedure are viewed as inexcusable mistakes and have far reaching implications. What causes these errors? Was it reckless or risky behavior by the nurse? Was it inadequate training and/or education? Perhaps prior experience with colleagues or a supervisor after a prior mistake influenced that nurse. Whatever the cause, these factors alter the perception of that nurse and thus alter the nursing lens and the nursing gaze. These factors must be analyzed to remove distortion from the lens. But how is this to applied to a practical research application? To do so you must have an understanding of what goes on in a nurse’s head, their basic thought process. Such as how they think in regards to a particular client situation and what influences their decision making process. This requires a combination approach that not only defines what attributes and experience effect the lens but the basis foundation of their formulation, thus a call for mid-range theory that explores how nurses learn, their perceptions and their involvement in nursing practice itself.