TFN PRELIM WEEK #4 (KATIE ERIKSSON)

KATIE ERIKSSON

• Born on November 18, 1943, in Jakobstad, Finland

• She belongs to the Finland Swedish minority in Finland, and her native language is Swedish

• She is a 1965 graduate of the Helsinki Swedish School of Nursing, and in 1967, she completed her public health nursing specialty education at the same institution.

• After becoming a nurse in 1965 to be able to practice nursing, she became a nursing instructor at Helsinki Swedish Medical Institute.

• She currently works as a professor of health sciences at Abo Akademi University in Finland, where she built a master’s degree program in health sciences, and a four-year postgraduate studies program leading to a doctoral degree in health sciences.

KATIE ERIKSSON

• Katie Eriksson is a Finnish nurse theorist who developed the Caritative Caring Theory, which is grounded in love, compassion, and the dignity of the human being.

• Caritative caring means that we take “caritas” into use when caring for the human being in health and suffering.

• The word “caritative” comes from “caritas”, which means love and charity in Latin.

• Main Idea of the Theory: True caring happens when it is done with love, compassion, and respect for the patient’s dignity. Caring is not just about doing tasks (like giving medicine or changing dressings) — it’s about genuinely being there for the patient as a human being.

CARITAS

• Means love and charity

• Eros and Agape are united → caritas is by nature unconditional love

• Is the fundamental motive of caring science

CARING COMMUNION

• Requires meeting in time and space, an absolute lasting presence (Eriksson, 1992c).

• Characterized by intensity and vitality, and by warmth, closeness, rest, respect, honesty, and tolerance.

• Seen as the source of strength and meaning in caring

ACT OF CARING

• Contains the caring elements (faith, hope, love, tending, playing, and learning), involves the categories of infinity and eternity, and invites to deep communion.

• The act of caring is the art of making something very special out of something less special.

Faith – believing in the patient’s potential to heal or feel peace.

Hope – Helping the patient stay positive even during hard times.

Love – Caring deeply and genuinely for the person.

Tending – Doing physical care with kindness (like bathing, feeding).

Playing – Bringing joy, lightness, or comfort when possible.

Learning – Being open to learning from the patient and situation.

CARING ETHICS

• basic relation between the patient and the nurse – how the nurse meets the patient

  in an ethical sense.

• Example:

  A nurse stays with a dying patient after their shift, not because it's a rule, but out of compassion and commitment to the patient’s emotional well-being.

NURSING ETHICS

• Deals with the ethical principles and rules that guide our work or our decisions.

• Example:

  A nurse respects a competent patient's decision to refuse treatment, even if the nurse disagrees, based on the ethical principle of autonomy.

DIGNITY

• Constitutes one of the basic concepts of caritative caring ethics. Human dignity is partly absolute dignity, partly relative dignity.

ABSOLUTE DIGNITY

• Basic worth every person has just because they are human.

• It doesn't change, no matter who you are, what you've done, or what your condition is.

• Example:

  A newborn baby, a homeless person, and a dying patient all have absolute dignity just because

they are human beings — no one can take that away.

RELATIVE DIGNITY

• Is influenced and formed through culture and external contexts.

• can be affected by how others treat you, your culture, society, and life experiences.

• Example:

  A bedridden elderly patient needs help using a bedpan.

INVITATION

• Refers to the act that occurs when the carer welcomes the patient to the caring communion.

• The concept of invitation finds room for a place where the human being is allowed to rest, a placethat breathes genuine hospitality, and where the patient’s appeal for charity meets with a response

SUFFERING

• Is an ontological concept described as a human being’s struggle between good and evil in a state

• Suffering is a unique, isolated total experience and is not synonymous with pain (Eriksson, 1984,

FORMS OF SUFFERING

1. Suffering related to illness is experienced in connection with illness and treatment.

2. Suffering related to care is when the patient is exposed to suffering caused by the absence of caring.

3. Suffering related to life, the situation of being a patient.

SUFFERING OF HUMAN BEING

• This is the concept that Eriksson uses to describe the patient.

• The patient refers to the concept of “patiens” (Latin) – which means “suffering”.

• The patient is a suffering human being, or a human being who suffers and patiently endures