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CHAP TER

Katie Eriksson
1943 to Present

Theory of Caritative Caring

Unni Å. Lindström, Lisbet Lindholm Nyström, and Joan E. Zetterlund

“Caritative caring means that we take “caritas” into use when caring for the human being in health and
suffering . . . Caritative caring is a manifestation of the love that ‘just exists’ . . . Caring communion,
true caring, occurs when the one caring in a spirit of caritas alleviates the suffering of the patient”
(Eriksson, 1992c, pp. 204, 207).

Credentials of the Theorist where she received her MA degree in philosophy in
Katie Eriksson is one of the pioneers of caring science 1974 and her licentiate degree in 1976; she defended
in the Nordic countries. When she started her career her doctoral dissertation in pedagogy (The Patient
30 years ago, she had to open the way for a new science. Care Process—An Approach to Curriculum Construc-
We who followed her work and progress in Finland tion within Nursing Education: The Development of a
have noticed her ability from the beginning to design Model for the Patient Care Process and an Approach
caring science as a discipline, while bringing to life the for Curriculum Development Based on the Process of
abstract substance of caring. Patient Care) in 1982 (Eriksson, 1974, 1976, 1981). In
Eriksson was born on November 18, 1943, in 1984, Eriksson was appointed Docent of Caring Sci-
Jakobstad, Finland. She belongs to the Finland- ence (part time) at University of Kuopio, the first
Swedish minority in Finland, and her native lan- docentship in caring science in the Nordic countries.
guage is Swedish. She is a 1965 graduate of the She was appointed Professor of Caring Science at Åbo
Helsinki Swedish School of Nursing, and in 1967, Akademi University in 1992. Between 1993 and 1999,
she completed her public health nursing specialty she held a professorship in caring science at University
education at the same institution. She graduated in of Helsinki, Faculty of Medicine, where she has been
1970 from the nursing teacher education program a docent since 2001. Since 1996, she has also served
at Helsinki Finnish School of Nursing. She contin- as Director of Nursing at Helsinki University Cen-
ued her academic studies at University of Helsinki, tral Hospital, with responsibilities for research and

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