Caring is more than kindness: modeling its complexities

In today's competitive health care environment, the term "caring" is used to promote positive consumer response to services, but little attention is paid to its substantive nature. Today's nurse executives must be able to articulate the value of nursing to other decision makers as choices are made about where limited health care resources should be distributed. Managerial decision makers are familiar with analyzing problems aided by quantitative data. This presents a challenge to nurse executives because the professional practices of nursing do not always lend themselves well to quantification. Caring is a central focus of nursing practice which is difficult to advance because of problems with its definition and measurement. Presented here is a model of caring which illustrates its complex nature, and which is supported by both quantitative and qualitative data.