Care, attention and imaginative identification in nursing practice.

This paper has relevance for both the major health care professions of medicine and nursing. Therefore the author tends to speak of health care practitioners rather than nurses or doctors. The author argues that health care practitioners need to be supported and facilitated in analysis of the concept of care both during their initial professional educational preparation and during their professional lives. Developing an adequate conceptual base for health care practice enables the practitioner to clarify issues of role, function and responsibilities. A conceptual analysis of caring in health care practice highlights the need for practitioners to develop skills of attention and imaginative identification. These skills enable the practitioner to provide constructive care for patients. Constructive care is care which is patient-based and patient-oriented, identification of patient need being the stimulus and the focus of practitioner response.