Care in healthcare

Ian Hargraves

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Abstract

In this paper the author argues that an undue emphasis on understanding healthcare in terms of what it does – the activities of care – limits appreciation of what those activities make, or fail to make, in people’s lives. As a result, clinicians and healthcare organizations have very little grasp of how human lives are reconfigured through their interaction with healthcare, and the harms that these reconfigurations often introduce. In order to look for another way of understanding the contribution of care in human life and living in terms other than activities of care, the author turns to an ancient account of care. This myth discusses care in terms of its contribution to how human beings have life and are held in life.

Keywords

Care; Medicine; Healthcare; Myth of Care; Ecology of Care

To cite this article

Hargraves, Ian. “Care in Healthcare.” Fusion Journal, no. 12, 2017, pp. 21-27. http://www.fusion-journal.com/care-in-healthcare/

First published online: 22 November 2017