Omsorg og ansvar som to sider af sammesag

Abstract

The article discusses New Public Gov-ernance in the light of an understanding of careand caring. New Public Governance is based ona view of humanity where each human being is anactor in his own life. Nursing care is based on a re-lational view of humanity where the moral re-sponsibility for fellow human beings is a key ele-ment. The purpose of the article is to identify thepitfalls of the moral responsibility to put forwardnew ways of acting to prevent neglect of care in aNew Public Governance healthcare system.Florence Nightingale is introduced as a rolemodel for moral responsibility, as her point of de-parture is to create life-conducing ways of actingin a relational collaboration with the patient. Thiscollaboration is based on the person and the exist-ence of this person. The article argues for a press-ing demand to act and that the nurse in the specif-ic care situation must discover which appeal forhelp is expressed by the patient and which life phe-nomena are at stake.The New Public Governance ideal is that self-management and involvement may lead to avoid-ance of responsibility and neglect of care. Thus,the focus should be to reclaim care as a value insociety and assess the right distribution of respon-sibility between the patient and the nurse in eachindividual situation.