Caring in an environment of change and casemix funding.

Caring has been defined by nurses and consumers of health care as an integral component of nursing. Florence Nightingale was the first nurse to describe an ethos of caring, and since then other theorists and clinicians have continued to support and develop a philosophy of care. Studies have highlighted that patients and their families also value care. However, concerns have been expressed that the current health care ideology is making caring practices more difficult to enact. The new priorities in health care award financial management a place that has the potential to overtake the importance of caring in nursing. This discussion examines the options that nurses have to defend and promote a philosophy of care.