Definitions of caring and assistence: a simple matter of semantics?

Abstract

It’s an investigation developed with 40 participants – 01 male and 39 female – in an universitary workshop about “contemporary nursing care”. The goal of the study was to answer the question: “what meanings do nurses give to the terms care and caring”. The participants, nurses from the clinical setting and faculty members, defined what they understood for care and caring and the analysis of the responses made the resercher conclude that besides other questions, the participants, in general, meant to care and to assist as synonims. In result of that, the resercher conducted an analysis of the terms, raising some questions and making some comments for reflection.