ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 offers an account of nursing as an organized human activity, that is both naturally and culturally shaped. Such a basic, blended understanding of nursing leads into forms of humanism that connect nursing fundamentally to the humanities. Nursing stems from human behaviours of caring, starting with nurturing infants. Although rooted in caring, prosocial drives, these are only one element underlying human behaviour. Human are complex, even contradictory beings. Therefore, history and culture are important in forming a distinct set of values and activities that have shaped modern nursing. One vital dimension is seeing nursing in relations to institutions, that enable nursing activity to take place. Against this background, there is no singular essence of nursing, although compassion and empathy are fundamentally important. Debates about the differences between empathy and compassion only serve to highlight the complexity at play in trying to define them. There is always an interplay between compassionate drives, institutional conditions, and cognitive judgement in good nursing care. Humanism, when seen as more a practice than a belief system, is one way of capturing the human complexity of nursing. Its focus on cultural expression leads back to the link between humanities and nursing.
