Margaret Jean
Katie Eriksson
one of the pioneers of caring science in the Nordic
countries.
Eriksson’s scientific career and experience comprise
of two periods:
> Years 1970-1986 at the Helenski Swedish School
of Nursing.
> Period from 1986, she founded the Department
of Caring Science at Abo Akademi University.
Major Concept of the Theory
Caritas  means “love and charity”
 in caritas, Eros and Agape are
united, and caritas is by nature
unconditional love.
 fundamental motive of caring
science, also constitutes the motive
for all caring.
 caring is an endeavor to mediate
faith, hope, and love through
tending, learning, and playing.
Caring structure that determines caring
Communion reality.
 a form of intimate connection that
characterizes caring.
 requires meeting in time and
space, an absolute, lasting presence.
 characterized by intensity and
vitality, and warmth, closeness, rest,
respect, honesty and tolerance.
 seen as the source of strength and
meaning in caring.
The Act of contains the caring elements
Caring (faith, hope, love tending, playing,
and learning).
 involves the categories of infinity
and eternity, and invites to deep
communion.
art of making something very
special out of something less
special.
Caritative comprises the ethics of caring, the
Caring Ethics core of which is determined by the
caritas motive.
> nursing ethics - deals with the
ethical principles and rules that
guide one’s work or decisions
> caring ethics - core of nursing
ethics.
Dignity constitutes one of the basic
concepts of caritative caring ethics.
 human dignity is partly absolute
dignity, partly relative dignity.
> absolute dignity - granted the
human being through creation.
> relative dignity - influenced and
formed through culture and external
contexts.
 a human being’s absolute dignity
involves the right to be confirmed
as a unique human being.
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 place the
breathes genuine hospitality, and
where the patient’s appeal for
charity means with a response.
Suffering an ontological concept described
as a human being’s struggle
between good and evil in a state of
becoming.
 a unique, isolated total experience
and is not synonymous with pain.
> suffering related to illness -
experienced in connection with
illness and treatment.
> suffering related to care - when
the patient is exposed to suffering
caused by care or absence of caring
which is always a violation of the
patient’s dignity.
> suffering related to life - in the
situation of being the patient, the
entire life of a human being may be
felt as a form of life-related
suffering.
The suffering a concept that Eriksson uses to
of a Human describe the patient.
Being  the patient refers to the concept of
patiens which mean “suffering”.
Reconciliation refers to the drama of suffering.
 implies a change through which a
new wholeness is formed of the life
the human being has lost in
suffering.
 the importance of sacrifice
emerges.
Caring concept that Eriksson uses
Culture instead of environment.
 it characterizes the total caring
reality and is biased on cultural
elements such as traditions, rituals,
and basic values.
 the origin of the concept of culture
is to be found in such dimensions as
 reverence, tending, cultivating, and
caring; these dimensions are central
to the basic motive of preserving
and developing a caring culture.
Important Principle
Use of Empirical Data
 from the beginning development of her theory,
Eriksson established it in empiricism by
systematically employing a hermeneutical and
hypothetical deductive approach
evidence in a human science perspective contains
two aspects: a conceptual, logical one which she calls
ontological, and an empirical one, each pre-supposing
each other
 Erikkson, step by step, has deepened her conceptual
and logical understanding of the basic concepts and
phenomena that have emerged from the theory
 Eriksson tested their validity in empirical contexts,
where the concepts have assumed contextual and
pragmatic attribute
Major Asumptions
Two major assumptions:
Axioms  regards as fundamental truths in
relation to the conception of the world.
Theses  fundamental statements concerning the
general nature of caring science, and their
validity is tested through basic research.
Axioms:
 the human being is fundamentally an entity of body,
soul, and spirit.
 the human being is fundamentally a religious being.
 the human being is fundamentally holy. Human
dignity means accepting the human obligation of
serving with love, of existing for the sake of others.
 communion is the basis for all humanity. Human
beings are fundamentally interrelated to an abstract
and/or concrete other in a communion.
 caring is something human by nature, a call to serve
in love.
 suffering is an inseparable part of life. Suffering and
health are each other’s prerequisites.
 health is more than the absence of illness. Health
implies wholeness and holiness.
 the human being lives in a reality that is
characterized by mystery, infinity, and eternity.
Theses:
 ethos confers ultimate meaning on the caring
context.
 the basic motive of caring is the caritas motive.
 the basic category of caring is suffering.
 caring communion forms the context of meaning or
caring and derives its origin from the ethos of love,
responsibility, and sacrifice, namely, caritative ethics.
 health means a movement in becoming, being, and
doing while striving for wholeness and holiness,
which is compatible with endurable suffering.
 caring implies alleviation of suffering in charity,
love, faith, and hope. Natural basic caring is expressed
through tending, playing, and learning in a sustained
caring relationship, which is asymmetrical by nature.
Metaparadigm of the Theory
Nursing  Eriksson emphasizes that caritative
caring relates the innermost core of
nursing.
> Nursing care - is based on the
nursing care process and represents
good care only when it is based on
the innermost core of caring.
> Caring nursing - represents a
kind of caring without prejudice that
emphasizes the patient and his or her
suffering and desires.
Person  Eriksson highlights the importance
of understanding the human being as
a suffering human being in his
ontological perspective.
Health  Eriksson defines health as
soundness, freshness and well-being.
The subjective dimension, well-
being, is emphasized strongly.
Environment  Ethos is ontology in which there is
an “inner thought to,” a target of
caring “that has its own language
and its own key.”
 Ethos originally refers to home, or
the place where human being’s
innermost space, where he appears in
his nakedness.
 Eriksson thinks that ethos means
that we feel called to serve a
particular task. This ethos she sees as
the core of caring culture.
 Eriksson makes a distinction
between endurable and unendurable
suffering: and thinks that an
unendurable suffering paralyzes the
human being, preventing him or her
from growing, while endurable
suffering is compatible with health.
Theoretical Assertion
Eriksson’s fundamental idea when formulating
theorotical assertions is that they connect four levels
of knowledge: the meta-theorotical, the theorotical,
the technological, and caring as art.

Logical Form
 Eriksson stresses the importance of the logical form
being created on the basis of the substance of caring,
not on the basis of method. It is thus deduction
combined with abduction that formed the guiding
logic. The language, words, and concepts carry the
content of meaning, and Eriksson stresses the
necessity of choosing words, concepts, and language
that correspond to human science.

Acceptance by the Nursing Community

Practice
Education
Research

Practice  Eriksson’s theory has been used by

several nursing units in the Nordic
countries
 The nursing care model has been
proved to be applicable in all contexts of
caring, from acute clinical caring, and
psychiatric care to health-promoting and
preventive care
 The model forms the core of the
development of nursing leadership at
various levels of nursing organization.

Education  Since 1970s, Eriksson’s theory has

been integrated into the education of
nurses at various levels.
 Academic courses in caring science-
based on Eriksson’s theory are offered
as part of continuing education for those
who work in clinical practice.
Research  Her model has been used by many
researchers and became the basis of their
studies.
 Continuous research has been carried
out since the 1970s to further develop
caring science as an academic discipline
 Eriksson also developed subdisciplines
of caring science that can make
researchers of caring science and other
scientific disciplines enter into dialogues
with each other and constitute a research
area.