Shirley Bach

Exploring the development of a cultural care framework for European caring science

The aim of this paper is to discuss the development of a cultural care framework that seeks to inform and embrace the philosophical ideals of caring science. Following a review of the literature that identified a lack of evidence of an explicit relationship between caring science and cultural care, a number of well-established transcultural care frameworks were reviewed. Our purpose was to select one that would resonate with underpinning philosophical values of caring science and that drew on criteria generated by the European Academy of Caring Science members. A modified framework based on the work of Giger and Davidhizar was developed as it embraced many of the values such as humanism that are core to caring science practice. The proposed caring science framework integrates determinants of cultural lifeworld-led care and seeks to provide clear directions for humanizing the care of individuals. The framework is offered to open up debate and act as a platform for further academic enquiry.

Challenges for future caring science research: a response to Hallberg (2006)

In a direct and somewhat provocative editorial in IJNS (43) pp. 923–927, Hallberg (2006) raises several challenges for nursing research if it is to provide useful evidence for health-care practice in both the short and the long term. We wish to offer a response to Hallberg’s challenges and to add support to her general call. In particular we wish to consider the challenges she poses in the wider context of caring science rather than the more limited perspective of nursing science. In the spirit of constructive debate we counter some of the claims made and indicate some areas for future direction which embrace a more epistemologically sound view of knowledge generation, which is methodologically sensitive to different research questions. This direction we believe is at the heart of what caring and nursing science is about.