Abstract

QUEIROS, Paulo Joaquim Pina. Caring: from condition of human existence to professionalised integral care. Rev. Enf. Ref. [online]. 2015, vol.serIV, n.5, pp.139-146. ISSN 0874-0283.  https://doi.org/10.12707/RIV14079.

Background: Nurses assume caring as defining element of their work and knowledge. Objectives: We sought to explain human caring, revealing its meanings throughout history and its current meaning for nursing. Main topics under analysis: Reflection in the search for significances and meanings of caring for human beings, based on the classical texts The First Alcibiades by Plato, the drama Philoctetes by Sophocles, and the Fable/Myth Cura by Hyginus. Among other authors, Heidegger, Foucault and Boff recognise the essence of caring and assign it a useful meaning within the disciplinary framework of nursing. Conclusion: We found an eminently human caring and first condition of humanity in plato; constitutive and founder of the human being in Hyginus; and inherent ethical imperative in Sophocles. These are key contributions to the current understanding of the concept of caring, distinction from the concept of care provision, and clarification of the meaning of professional nursing care.

Keywords : nursing; philosophy; knowledge; nursing care.

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