Page 121 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

t h eoret ic al Fra m e w o r k F or C ar it as/c ari n g rel at i on s h i p
The attention to cultivating practitioner-to-community relation-
ships is based further on an ethic and ethos of shared humanity, which
reminds us that we learn to be more human by seeing our self in the
other and vice versa, realizing that one level of humanity reflects back
on the other. This ethic and ethos is located within an emerging cos-
mology referred to as Unitary Consciousness (Watson 1999), noting
that everything in the universe is connected, not separate and discon-
nected. Thus, we learn to be more open, more available, more pres-
ent to the wonders of life itself, bonding us through the very breath
of life, honoring the fact that we share the air we breathe. Caritas and
Communitas define an emerging global ethic of caring-healing through
relationships, belonging, and connectedness, which helps us restore
the sacred in the midst of everyday existence and our relationship to
all living things.
The knowledge, skills, and values in which practitioners need to
effectively participate as part of their work with communities fall into
four areas in the Pew Fetzer framework (PFR 1994:31):

1. The meaning of community (extended here to include the con-
cept of Caritas-Communitas)
2. The multiple contributors to health and illness within the
community

3. Developing and maintaining relationships with the community
(at multiple levels of awareness of community)

4. Effective community-based care.
These categories can serve as a curricular framework and guide
for comprehending community in a broad sense. However, the nature,
definitions, and meaning of community are constantly changing in
society and the world. Indeed, even our worldview is shifting when
considering community in its broadest, universal sense.
Table 8.3 summarizes the categories of practitioner-to-community
relationships identified/modified from the Pew Fetzer Report.
Developing and sustaining a deeper understanding of commu-
nity—within both a concrete, local, and immediate sense and a uni-
versal Communitas sense—form the foundation for effective caring. It

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