CHAPTER I — FOUNDATIONS OF NURSING AS CARING
In this chapter we present the fundamental ideas related to person as caring and nursing as a discipline and profession that serves as the perspectival grounding for the theory Nursing as Caring. We intend to offer our perspective of these ideas as influenced by the works of various scholars so that the grounding for Nursing as Caring will be understood. We do not intend to offer a novel perspective of the notion of person, or a new generic understanding of caring or of discipline and profession, but to communicate some of the ideas basic to Nursing as Caring.
Major assumptions underlying Nursing as Caring include:
* persons are caring by virtue of their humanness
* persons are caring, moment to moment
* persons are whole or complete in the moment
* personhood is a process of living grounded in caring
* personhood is enhanced through participating in nurturing
relationships with caring others
* nursing is both a discipline and a profession