ABSTRACT
THIS CHAPTER IS based on research which aimed to identify and authenticate those aspects of nursing practice which best typify caring (Euswas 1991). We believe that caring is central to effective nursing practice and will remain so in the foreseeable future. In the world of nursing scholarship the earliest concern with caring as applied to nursing is generally attributed to Florence Nightingale, whose efforts led to a distinction being made between the work of professional nurses and that of doctors. Interest in the concept of caring, as evident in associated research,
theorising and critique, peaked in the late 1980s. Although the growth rate for related research has slowed since then, and despite the emergence of new critics such as Heslop and Oates (1995), we believe that caring as a key element of nursing practice warrants continued attention. The phenomenological discussion that forms the substance of this chapter shows clearly that the ability to care and to be cared for are recognised by both nurses and patients as being central to their reality.
