International Journal of Nursing

Empirical Phenomenological Study on Caring in Nursing. The Prerequisites for an Ethics of Care
Maria Caterina Salvini, Luigina Mortari

Abstract
To act well at the nursing level it is essential to act well at the caring level. Good nursing care practice cannot be separated from well-done nursing practice. This reference to the good in referring to the appropriateness of care in general, and nursing in particular, is the object subjected to clarification in the research. Caring is a multidimensional activity, in which thought, feeling and competent action are mutually integrated. This multidimensionality is essential for good caring to be practiced. From the narratives of the care practice collected, ethically significant actions emerge, which explain how this good is expressed in the concrete action of the nurse towards the patient, through an intentionality in acting in relation to the history of the individual patient. The research is methodologically structured on two dimensions: the phenomenological and the empirical one. The results obtained lay the foundations for the search for an ethics of care.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijn.v11n1a2