ABSTRACT
The first chapter gives background to the topic of nursing and humanities by examining the history of medical humanities, the newly emergent field of health humanities, and contemporary concerns about the role of humanities themselves. Physicians, from the start of modern scientific medicine, had anxieties about losing touch with the humane side of medicine in doctor–patient relationships and looked to the humanities to help produce well rounded, humane practitioners. Medical humanities developed into a distinct field that continues to feed into medical education. Nursing has never developed an equivalent field of “nursing humanities”, possibly because nursing has always counted humane, patient centred care among its core values and has not felt the need for additional resources to support them. Nevertheless, nursing has a standpoint that calls for humanities knowledge. Health humanities has emerged as an interdisciplinary approach, with an inclusive approach to the uses of humanities in health care. Humanities scholars have produced arguments for the social value of humanities that include promotion of empathy and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Thus, nursing has a place in these traditions because it is a discipline with a distinctive history and viewpoint that has a contribution to make in health humanities.
