Care and compassion: part of person-centred rehabilitation, inappropriate response or a forgotten art?
OBJECTIVE
The nature of healthcare, rehabilitation and indeed even professional practice and discipline roles seems to constantly change. In particular, whilst 'care' has an accepted place in much of health service delivery, there is considerable debate about whether the concept has a place in modern rehabilitation. This paper sets out to review the concept and pose questions about the nature of caring in rehabilitation.


RESULTS
In order to highlight different potential understandings, this paper reviews the origins of healthcare traditions and care. We explore ethical humanistic and political aspects of caring and investigate what facilitates and obstructs adequate care. Finally we examine what the risks of caring (or not caring) are for both health professionals and their clients.


CONCLUSIONS
Whilst the arguments presented here suggest there is value in caring, there are very limited studies that explicitly examine its nature or indeed value, particularly in rehabilitation. As a result, the potential difference in both the experience of, and outcome, from rehabilitation in relation to the nature of care is yet to be clearly established.
MacLeod
Rod
R
Department of General Practice and Primary Care, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand. rd.macleod@auckland.ac.nz
McPherson
Kathryn M
KM
D017028:Caregivers / Q000941:ethics / Q000523:psychology; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004645:Empathy; D006040:Goals; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010358:Patient Participation; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000941:ethics; D024382:Professional Role; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012944:Social Support