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Philosophers who study care—most often, care ethicists—are involved in an ongoing discussion about the concept of care. Despite the significant progress made in this discussion, certain conflicting images of care seem to persist in the literature. On one hand, as feminist theorists across disciplines have highlighted, care is a complex social practice that is mired in inequality and injustice. The deeply gendered nature of caring and the unequal division of care-work creates and cements structural inequalities. On the other hand, care is also thought of as a moral value or an ideal. The ethics of care—a moral theory with decidedly feminist roots—is predicated on the idea that caring is somehow morally valuable. A discrepancy thus arises: care is a social practice that compounds injustices. But it is also a moral value. What is it about care that makes it malleable to such variations? To pick out this complexity and capture the conceptual nuances at play, this paper suggests that we frame the concept of care as a thick ethical concept. I will first demonstrate why this framing is helpful. Then, I will provide accounts of the descriptive and evaluative elements of the concept of care. I hope to show that it is through a thick conceptual framing that we can make sense of care—both as a complex social practice and an important moral value in the worlds that we inhabit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Caring contains understanding and connecting with the individual and the process of providing the healing effect. Nurses' awareness of the science of care can be improved by analyzing and sharing their care experiences, including their healing power, with members of the profession. Aim: The aim of this study was to understand the meaning of care from nurses' experiences and the real‐life stories told by nurses. Method: A descriptive phenomenological design was used. A total of 124 stories told by 23 nurses participating in the training of Human Caring Theory constituted the sample of the study. The content analysis of the stories was carried out in four stages with Giorgi's phenomenological method analysis. Results: Three themes and six subthemes were derived from the 124 stories. Three main themes: (1) care holds mysteries, (2) care as praxis and (3) obstacles to caring relationship. The first main theme consisted of three subthemes; "Hearing the call for help", "Metaphysical presence" and "Discovery of the healing effect". The second main theme consisted of three subthemes; "Criticism of the objective approach", "Unforgettable experiences of carecaring experiences" and "Awareness of expertise". Conclusion: The use of stories in the training of Human Caring Theory that centers care, besides facilitating learning, has created awareness among nurses about the 'Concept of Care' and has been an important step towards developing awareness of care among nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care is the most important concept that constitutes the core of nursing. Nurses perceptions on care influences the quality of care practices greatly. It is especially important that nursing care is adequate and effective at intensive care units where care is provided for patients with complex and life-threatening problems. This study was conducted with the aim of determining the perceptions of nurses on the concept of care and their care practices. This qualitative study was conducted at an intensive care unit in the Southeastern Anatolia Region in Turkey. The study was performed with 17 intensive care nurses. Private face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data. The data were analyzed using the method of content analysis. All the nurses stated that the concept of care is the basis of nursing. As a result of the analysis of the data, three main themes were determined. (a) Perception of care; physical care, psychological and physical care, (b) Care; care practice, care responsibility, contribution of care practices to perception of nursing as a profession, (c) Feelings after care; feeling happy, feeling of fulfilling your responsibility. Care perceptions and care practices of intensive care nurses should be improved further. [Med-Science 2019; 8(2.000): 330-4]

Background: Caring represents an essential human need and, although it is difficult to define and is not unique to nursing, it is supported that it is central to nursing. Aims: The current study aims to explore nursing students’ perception of caring and provide useful information for nursing education. Methodology: A qualitative approach was used. Questionnaires were distributed to students of all four study years of a Nursing Department of a Cypriot University. Data were analysed by content analysis. Results: Participants provided a description of their perception of caring which included the meaning of care as help, offer, heath maintenance, disease prevention and health promotion, provision of services as well as, biological and psychological support. Conclusions: Clarifying the meaning of caring can contribute to better provision of nursing care. Therefore, educators may use the results of the current study in order to find the proper interventions in education, which should include not only the theoretical background, but also the professional tools, which will help students to care in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If we want to produce people who will care for one another, then it makes sense to give students practice in caring and reflection on that practice - Noddings, 1998, p.191, as cited in Smith, 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional notions of care appear to be connected to parents as caregivers and children as care-recipients. This article explores care in the context of post-divorce families to underline the need for re-evaluating the causal understanding of this concept. The data are drawn from a qualitative study investigating how Danish children aged 8–12 (and their parents) conduct their everyday lives with time-sharing arrangements as a result of parental divorce. Through empirical examples, different kinds of caring practices are highlighted to assert that care is a situated and reciprocal process between parents and children – a process of mutual caregiving and caretaking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]