ABSTRACT
In order to explore the dilemmas of paid care work in the Nordic countries, it is essential to clarify the ontology of care, as well as expose how the gendered and social division of labour is constitutive of the institution of care work. One of the dilemmas is that care skills on the one hand function as experience-based knowledge in a number of work communities, and on the other hand are incorporated into the scholarly skills of care training programmes. The phenomenological philosophers' expositions of human existence are important in order to gain insights into the nature of care. The individual has become more isolated from the community, partly due to values that dictate that the individual must take care of him/herself. Within health care services New Public Management on one hand implies an increased focus upon 'quality', and on the other hand results in worsened conditions for the caregiving person employed in a hospital.
