title: Uncovering the knowledge to care.
abstract: Quality of care requires knowledge of care. This article addresses the concept of 'care'. Leininger describes caring as the 'central and unifying domain for the body of knowledge and practices in nursing'. Much has been written on this concept and yet still there is much more to the concept than meets the eye. Attributes to the concept are identified using Walker and Avants framework of concept analysis. The attributes identified (forty) are utilised in determining their occurrence in forty-two articles submitted the the British Journal of Theatre Nurses (BJTN) from June 1993 to May 1994. The results show that not all forty attributes identified in the analysis are present. Recommendations are put forward for theatre nurses to critically examine caring situations that occur in looking after patients undergoing surgical procedures if we truly believe that ours is a caring environment.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eyles
mesh_terms: D004645:Empathy; D006801:Humans; D016294:Models, Nursing; D015399:Nursing Research; D013527:Perioperative Nursing