KATIE ERIKSSON
“Theory of Caritative Caring”
o Katie Eriksson is a Finland-Swedish nurse
o After taking nursing in 1965 to be able to practice nursing, she became a nursing
instructor at Helsinki Swedish Medical Institute
o She currently works as a professor of health sciences at Abo Akademi University in
Vaasa, where she built a master’s degree program in health sciences, and a four-year
postgraduate studies program leading to a doctoral degree in health sciences.
Katie Eriksson’s Contribution to Nursing Theory: Theory of Caritative Caring
o The Theory of Caritative Caring was developed by Katie Eriksson. This model of nursing
distinguishes between caring ethics, the practical relationship between the patient
and the nurse, and nursing ethics.
o Nursing ethics are the ethical principles that guide a nurse’s decision-making abilities.
o Caritative caring consists of love and charity, which is also known as caritas, and
respect and reverence for human holiness and dignity. According to the theory,
suffering that occurs as a result of a lack of caritative care is a violation of human
dignity.
MAJOR CONCEPT AND DEFINITION
o Caritas - means love and charity. In caritas, eros and agapé are united, and caritas is
by nature un conditional love.
o Caritas, which is the fundamental motive of caring science, also constitutes the motive
for all caring.
o It means that caring is an endeavor to mediate faith, hope, and love through tending,
playing, and learning.
CARING COMMUNION
o Caring communion constitutes the context of the meaning of caring and is the
structure that determines caring reality.
o It is a form of intimate connection that characterize s caring. Caring communion
requires MAJOR CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS meeting in time and space, an absolute,
lasting presence
ACT OF CARING
o The act of caring contains the caring elements (faith, hope, love, tending, playing,
and learning), involves the categories of infinity and eternity, and invites to deep
communion. The act of caring is the art of making something very special out of so
making less special.
CARATIVE CARING ETHICS
o Caritative caring ethics comprises the ethics of caring, the core of which is determined
by the caritas motive.
o Caring ethics deals with the basic relation between the patient and the nurse-the way
in which the nurse meets the patient in an ethical sense.
o It is about the approach we have toward the patient. Caring ethics deals with the
basic relation between the patient and the nurse the way in which the nurse meets
the patient in an ethical sense. It is about the approach we have toward the patient.
DIGNITY
o Dignity constitutes one of the basic concepts of caritative caring ethics. Human
dignity is partly absolute dignity, partly relative dignity
INVITATION
o Invitation refers to the act that occurs when the carer welcomes the patient to the
caring communication.
SUFFERING
o Suffering is an ontological concept described as a human being's struggle between
good and evil in a state of becoming.
o Suffering implies in some sense dying
o Three different forms of suffering:
1. Suffering related to illness is experienced in connection with illness and
treatment.
2. Not to be taken seriously, not to be welcome, being blamed,
3. Being subjected to the exercise of power are various forms of suffering related to
care.
o The suffering human being is the concept that uses to describe the patient.
o The patient is a suffering human being, or a human being who suffers and patiently
endures
RECONCILLATION
o Reconciliation refers to the drama of suffering.
o Reconciliation implies a change through which a new wholeness is formed of the life
the human being has lost in suffering.
o Reconciliation is a prerequisite of caritas
CARING CULTURE
o Is the concept that Eriksson (1987a) uses instead of environment. It characterizes the
total caring reality and is based on cultural elements such as traditions, rituals, and
basic values
PERSON
o Person is based on the axiom that the human being is an entity of body, soul, and
spirit.
o She emphasizes that the human being is fundamentally a religious being
o The human being is fundamentally holy
o The human being is seen as in constant becoming; he is constantly in change and
therefore never in a state of full completion.
o The human being is fundamentally dependent on communion; he is dependent on
another, and it is in the relationship between a concrete other (human being) and an
abstract other (some form of God)
o When the human being is entering the caring context, he or she becomes a patient in
the original sense of the concept-a suffering human being
ENVIRONMENT
o The ethos of caring science, as well as that of caring, consists of the idea of love and
charity and respect and honor of the holiness and dignity of the human being.
o Ethos is the sounding board of all caring. there is an "inner ought to," a target of caring
o Ethos originally refers to home, or to the place where a human being feels at home.
o Ethos and ethics belong together, and in the caring culture, they become one.
HEALTH
o Health as soundness, freshness, and well-being.
o Health implies being whole in body, soul, and spirit
o Health means as a pure concept wholeness and holiness.
o Different dimensions of health as "doing, being, and becoming with a wholeness that is
unique to human beings
NURSING
o Caritas constitutes the inner force that is connected with the mission to care. A carer
beams forth what Eriksson calls claritas, or the strength and light of beauty.
o The fundamentals of natural caring are constituted by the idea of motherliness, which
implies cleansing and nourishing, and spontaneous and unconditional love.
o Emphasizes that caritative caring relates to the innermost core of nursing.
o She distinguishes between caring nursing and nursing care
o She means that nursing care is based on the nursing care process, and it represents
good care only when it is based on the innermost core of caring
o The core of the caring relationship, between nurse and patient is an open invitation
that contains affirmation that the other is always welcome.
