title: Caring: the raison d'etre of the professional nurse.
abstract: There is a belief in society that nursing is a profession and therefore that nurses are professional. There is also a belief that nurses care, that is, they care for their patients and consequently are a caring profession. However, we see and hear instances in which nurses do not act in a caring manner. Where this is the case, can they still be considered individually a professional, and collectively a profession? Is there a connection between caring and profession? Can a nurse be one without the other? The assertion of this paper, is that to be a professional nurse, a nurse must care. "Caring" and "profession" are defined and the components for a model of a professional relationship proposed. Nurses are challenged to find ways in which to reclaim their professional status by recapturing their commitment to caring.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hawthorne
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yurkovich
mesh_terms: D004645:Empathy; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D011361:Professional Competence