Self-care myth reconsidered

Self-care ideology and theory can do much to shape the development of health policy and the organization and delivery of health care. From a critical social perspective, self-care theory can be seen as an attempt to sustain the illusion of individual choice in contemporary health care delivery. Understanding the dominance of individual responsibility for health that permeates the essence of self-care theory provides a way of understanding a vision of thought and practice that currently exists within the discipline of nursing. This article attempts to elucidate the social and political construction of nursing knowledge with a view to self-care.