To Care for the Patient: a Theory Based Clinical Application Research

• Main Authors: Ingegerd Bergbom, Lisbet Nyström, Maud Karlsson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Professor Despina Sapountzi-Krepia 2012-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Caring Sciences
• Subjects: Theorybased research; clinical application research; evidence based practice; care for; not care for; carer´s perspective; critical incident; hermeneutic text interpretation
• Online Access: http://internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/8.To%20Care%20for%20the%20Patient.pdf

Background: The research is a theory based clinical application research with a participant orientation.Aims: The aim of the study is to describe meaning of the concepts ‘care for’ and ‘not care for’ from the carer’sperspective.Methodology: The critical incident method was chosen as data collection. The interpretation of data was madeusing hermeneutic text interpretation in four readings.Results: To ‘care for’ means seeing the patient as a fellow human being which is understood as; to see thepatient, to allow the immediately given and to think about the patient.To ‘not care for’ means seeing the patient as an object which is understood as not listening to the patient andclosing the eyes to the patient’s wishes.Conclusions To ‘care for’ as an aspect of caring is understood as an inner ethical attitude that includesresponsibility and respect for the human being, an inner ethical attitude in the meaning of seeing your fellowbeing with love and mercy. Seeing the patient as an object means that caring has been reduced to actions andwork tasks without a deeper meaning.