The contexts of caring: conscience and consciousness.

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Philosophy of Care
• Healthcare Ethics

Background:

• The distinction between person and self is crucial for understanding nursing encounters.
• Caring contexts in nursing can impact both the patient (nursed person) and the provider (nursing person).
• Depersonalization and dehumanization are significant issues affecting healthcare professionals and patients.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe and analyze contexts of caring in nursing encounters by differentiating between personhood and selfhood.
• To identify four contextual categories of caring: comprehension, consideration, concern, and communion.
• To explore how personhood and selfhood are enhanced or diminished in clinical nursing and education.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis maintaining a distinction between person and self.
• Examination of the nursed person's perspectives in relation to the nurse's capacity for engagement.
• Identification of four emergent contextual categories of caring.

Main Results:

• Four contextual categories of caring emerged: comprehension, consideration, concern, and communion.
• Diminishment of personhood leads to depersonalization (loss of agency, helplessness).
• Diminishment of self leads to dehumanization (loss of contact with experience, meaninglessness).

Conclusions:

• The proposed concepts can aid in describing and analyzing clinical nursing and education situations.
• Further research is needed to understand contexts that enhance or diminish personhood and selfhood.
• Investigating caring contexts can help address depersonalization and dehumanization in healthcare and restore personhood and selfhood.