The contrary ideals of individualism and nursing value of care

Despite the relational worldview that underpins nursing caring, the cultural value of individualism remains firmly embedded in nursing's conceptual systems. Individualism forms the basis of notions such as autonomy, self-reliance, personal rights and entitlement. When nurses concomitantly espouse the value of care, an orientation that stands in contrast to the predominant societal motif of the autonomous individual, they find themselves having to reconcile contrary ideals. The significance of the coexistence of the values of individualism and care rests upon the capability of each to contrast and sharpen our understanding of the other. The convergent outcome is the empowerment of nurses to refine their understanding of the human condition in illness and health, and to articulate a public practice of care that would temper the fundamental mark of nointerference in the traditional notion of individualism in American culture.