Summary

Caring is a universal human trait which cannot be claimed by any one professional group. This text highlights the importance of caring work to health promotion and maintenance regardless of who performs this work and where it is carried out. It chronicles the marginalisation of caring work from formal organisational structures, policy debates and reward systems and identifies the problems for health created by a failure in caring processes.

Susan Procter brings together a body of contemporary nursing and sociological knowledge to examine the role of caring processes and argues the case for increasing understanding of the link between caring and health. The resulting volume is essential reading for health professionals and policy makers alike.