著者

永田 まなみ

出版者

日本医学哲学・倫理学会

雑誌

医学哲学 医学倫理 (ISSN:02896427)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.26, pp.51-61, 2008-10-22 (Released:2018-02-01)

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Because the word 'care' is often used in nursing as a daily word and in polysemic fashion, usage of it needs to be organized, refined, and modified for inclusion of it as an academic term. In this paper, an attempt is made to clarify the meaning of the word 'care' by considering what specific meanings and roles those within the nursing discipline may assign this word, so that desirable nursing practice can be clearly explained. In reference to 'nursing care', nursing has been explained using everyday interpretations of the word 'care'. While discussing appropriate nursing, on the other hand, intangibles such as qualities required in those who do nursing care, etc. have been mentioned as crucial to making nursing care true nursing. For the past twenty years, there has been an unfortunate tendency to use the word 'human caring' as equivalent to nursing, and the word 'care' as a catch-all to conveniently indicate both the nature and the goodness of nursing, as a result of which the nature of nursing remains unclear. If in nursing the word 'care' is redefined in accordance with the continuing and evolving application of its previous usage in academic discipline, while avoiding discrepancies from practical wisdom, it would then be appropriate to define it as aid extended to advance the well-being and autonomy of each individual patient before us who lives wishing for health. Considering the current situation in which nurses care for multiple patients, it is not possible to discuss the entirety of desirable nursing if we rely solely on the word 'care'.

著者

永田 まなみ

出版者

日本医学哲学・倫理学会

雑誌

医学哲学 医学倫理 (ISSN:02896427)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.21, pp.82-97, 2003-10-05 (Released:2018-02-01)

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This paper discusses the debate in the Journal of Medical Ethics over the ethics of care between P. Allmark and A. Bradshaw. For the last 20 years, since C. Gilligan's work, the possibility of an ethics based on the concept of care has drawn considerable attention. Allmark argued that an ethics of care could not be based on the premise that care encompassed moral values because the word "care" itself could be applied to good or evil situations. Bradshow argued that care ethics could be comprehensible only when linked to the Judeo-Christian tradition. Allmark said that Bradshaw's care ethics had normative and descriptive points in so far as defined what should be cared for and haw it should be done, but that she did not respond to his assertion that a moral sense might not be derived from care itself, and also that her understandings about care contained philosophical and historical difficulties. Allmark is justified in arguing that, in general usage, care is a neutral term, and that as a result it can not be said to have moral overtones. Care can be used in the moral sense only if its subject and methods are clearly defined. Further, Allmark's attempt to cast doubt on Bradshaw's view of nursing care as a God-sent profession based on the Judeo-Christian tradition is acceptable from the viewpoint of modern nursing. In the context of nursing, however, it is beyond doubt that the subject of care is the sick and that the recovery of her health is intended. The discussion of care must include a very significant way of thinking by nurses in order to achieve the level of care desired, and it should rest on a foundation of respect for individual persons. The whole discussion of care in this context cannot be invalidated simply because the term "care" is also used in torture.

著者

永田 まなみ

出版者

日本医学哲学・倫理学会

雑誌

医学哲学 医学倫理 (ISSN:02896427)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.19, pp.57-71, 2001-10-20 (Released:2018-02-01)

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In the 21^<st> century, as we face an unprecedented increase in the number of elderly people and a high-welfare society, care and nursing will become more important. In this article, I review the coming role of nursing specialists from the viewpoint of patient autonomy. Firstly, I propose that the trend of mutual support, while maintaining individual autonomy, will continue to spread. Thus, it is essential to respect others' lives as well as one's own for a "comfortable relationship". This is the core meaning of the concept of "Caring". "Caring", the basis of nursing, also includes interrelationship and interdependence. This should make nurses reflect on their own lives often cared for by patiants while caring for them. Secondly, while reviewing the development of nursing theory, I stress the support of patient autonomy. In clinical nursing, respect for patient autonomy in their daily lives is the most important factor in patient "comfort", although more attention is normally paid to radical problems involving life or death such as terminal care. Lastly, I mention the possibility of integrating the "ethics of justice" and the "ethics of care". When nurses deal with "patient autonomy" as professionals, the problem of "bad paternalism" (or intrusive nursing) can arise. In considering how clinical nursing ought to be, the "ethics of care" and the "ethics of justice" must be integrated. This idea may be more suitable for the age of care. "Practical knowledge" in nursing may contribute to the theoretical integration of the "ethics of justice" and the "ethics of care".