Conclusion
Most nurses have been exposed to Watson’s caring theory, but many are not aware of the ethics of care theory development that began in moral psychology with the work of Gilligan (1982). Care is crucial for human development, and is first and foremost aimed at physical needs. Caring is necessary on the biological level for infants to survive, but also for the patient who is dependent at end of life. Care ethics stem from the idea that care is basic to human existence. Caring weaves people into a network of relationships (Vanlaere & Gastmans, 2011). However, when a person chooses to be a nurse, he orshe has made a moral commitment to care for all patients. Such a decision to care is not to taken lightly, as it reflects this statement in the Code of Ethics for Nurses: “The nurse respects the worth, dignity and rights of all human beings irrespective of the nature of the health problem” (ANA, 2001, p. 7). Caring is required if a patient, such as Mr. Jones, has health consequences due to lack of adherence to a treatment plan for his diabetes and alcoholism. Putting aside personal biases and prejudices to implement Tronto’s (1993) four phases of caring is not easy. The four dimensions of care suggest “good care demands more than just good Intention; good care…is a practice of combining activities, attitudes, and knowledge of the situation” (Gastmans, 2006, p. 137). Care can be considered simply an ethical task and thus a burden of one more thing to do, or it can be considered a commitment to attending to and becoming enthusiastically involved in the patient’s needs.