Evolution of Ray's Theory of Bureaucratic Caring

An overview and evolution of caring and the theory of bureaucratic caring and interpretations of its central categories are described. Data and models representing its theoretical development, the concept of bureaucracy, and emergence of the theory as a holographic theory are included. Central tenets in the new sciences are explored along with Bohm's corresponding ideas of explicate and implicate orders (holistic science) and spiritual-ethical caring. The theory has broad implications for increasing the knowledge of caring inter-professionally, improving the health and well-being of people, and transforming healthcare bureaucratic organizations nationally and globally, with application in the military healthcare system.

‘Rub Him About the Temples’: Othello, Disability, and the Failures of Care

Focusing on how race and disability deconstruct and expose the facades of friendship, this article explores the ethical differences in models of care in Shakespeare's Othello. It examines the networks of care surrounding the character of Othello – particularly his interactions with Cassio – and demonstrates how, by revealing the many pretensions and failures of relationship, the play develops a theory and praxis for ethical caring that attends to the complexity of a black and disabled character. The play, this essay argues, finally presents a solution to the problem of care in the symbolic and material web of the ancestral handkerchief.

Development and Psychometric Validation of the Nurse-Nursing Assistant-Caregiver Reciprocity Scale: Measuring Reciprocal Ethical Caring

The human social principle of Reciprocal Ethical Caring (REC) has not been measured in long-term care (LTC) settings. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate dimensions of REC in the nurse-nursing assistant Caregiver reciprocity Scale (NNA-CRS). Psychometric investigation (N = 1,050) resulted in three factors: Balanced Reciprocal Ethical Caring Team Work (7 items), Love and Affection (5 items), and Intrinsic Rewards (4 items). Cronbach alphas were .891, .800, and .815, respectively. Fit indices supported use of the NNA-CRS in LTC (CFI = .947, RMSEA = .060, AGFI= .926, CMIN/DF = 4.720, NFI = .933, and RMR = .036).

The impact of clinical encounters on student nurses’ ethical caring

The aim of this study was to get a deeper understanding of student nurses’ experiences of personal caring ethics by reflection on caring encounters with patients in clinical practice, ethical caring ideals, ethical problems, and sources for inner strength that give courage to practice good caring. In all, 24 Scandinavian student nurses participated voluntarily in an interview study. The interviews were analyzed within a phenomenological–hermeneutical approach and revealed three themes. The students found themselves in two different states of vulnerability: one in which they were overwhelmed by their vulnerability and began to suffer themselves and the other where their vulnerability became a source of development with focus on the patient. The students’ ethical caring ideals served as fixed reference points in their ethical development, but their ideals were at risk of decline. The students reflected on the barriers for performing ethical care and nurtured their ethical ideals by providing ethical care in secret. Caring in secret occurred also when student nurses did not experience a shared ethos.

In defense of ethically caring physicians

Ever since its introduction 20 years ago, the Ethics of Care has encountered sharp opposition in the context of medical practice. In this essay I endeavour to provide a systematic defence of ethical caring as a virtue for physicians. I begin by briefly describing the initial formulation of the Ethics of Care. I then present the arguments by critics who oppose ethical caring in medical practice. These arguments range from assertions that caring physicians will be more likely to suffer from professional burnout to claims that they will become more likely to be unethically paternalistic. Next, I will identify more recent contributions to the Ethics of Care from Rita Manning and Michael Slote. Armed with a more fully developed conception of ethical caring, I respond to each of the critical arguments. I finish by describing how ethical caring fits nicely with a well regarded understanding of the physicianpatient relationship.