Maryam Aghabarari, Nahid Dehghan Nayeri,
Volume 21, Issue 1 (6-2015)
Abstract
Caring is the most central concept in nursing. This concept distinguishes nursing from other health professions. However, according to some experts’ opinions, caring is not an only-nursing concept it is defined as the heart of all health professions. Caring is entered in the philosophy, vision and mission of several health organizations (1) and is introduced as the essence of nursing and the fourth complementary concepts of nursing Meta paradigm (2). Caring, as a central concept in nursing, has led to developing various caring theories. The most popular ones involve the cultural care theory of Leninger and the human care theory of Watson that were presented in the 1970s. In addition, the theory of Roach was developed in the 1980s. Another theory was presented by Boykin and Schoenhofer in the 1990s. These theories can be compared in some aspects including origin, domain, and definition of caring, description of nursing and other key components (3).
Maryam Aghabarary, Nahid Dehghan Nayeri, Abbas Varvani Farahani,
Volume 24, Issue 4 (1-2019)
Abstract
Background & Aim: Concerns over limited equipment and resources particularly in the intensive care units have raised the issues of medical futility, futile treatment, and futile care. Considering that there is no consensus in the definition of the concept of futile care, this study aimed to explore the concept of futile care, especially in terms of clarifying it with the concept of futile treatment.
Methods & Materials: This is a qualitative study conducted using the conventional content analysis approach. In this study, 22 nurses, eight medical specialists, four medical ethics specialists, and one sharia specialist, were purposively recruited with the consideration of maximum variation. Data were collected using individual, in-depth, semi-structured interviews.
Results: The main theme of the study was “care is never futile: care as goal”. This theme is consisted of four main categories including: 1. care as an indispensable service; 2. care as an ongoing process focused on human existence; 3. care as a sacred and essential process in Islam; 4. the necessity for differentiating between care and cure: futile treatment instead of futile care.
Conclusion: Although, in some cases, and depending on the circumstances, medical interventions may be futile, care is never futile. According to the findings of this study, the terms medical futility and futile care cannot be used interchangeably because interchangeable use of these terms can devalue the nature of care. Thus, it is necessary to use the term of “futile treatment” instead of “futile care”.
