The aesthetic practice of care ethics

Abstract

Situated between the doctor and the patient, nurses play a central role in the doctor-patient relationship. Nurses attend to patients' exhaustion and take responsibility for the "Other," in Lévinas' sense of the word. In discussions of the doctor-patient relationship, the patient is often regarded as the "Other". This perspective seeks to challenge the traditional contention that the doctor plays the dominant role. In the structure of this relationship, the doctor, responsible for providing diagnoses, is the subject and the patient is the object. The latter constantly feels frustrated and helpless and requires the comfort of the nurse. In this sense, the nurse, having the direct contact with the patient, constantly sees the faces of the patients. In the care relationship, the patient's frustration and helplessness will sometimes be expressed to the nurse if the patient cannot be affectively affirmed. In this type of situation, the nurse bears not simply his / her routine work, but also affective devotion and endurance. On the one hand, the nurse must practice professional medical care in the face of patients' affective feelings and emotions and, on the other hand, he / she must treat the patient as a relative and suppress inner feelings and emotions. How does a nurse situate herself into the doctor-patient relationship? As the nurse is asked to treat the patient as a relative, how does he / she face inner emotions? This paper reflects on the possibility of the aesthetic practice of care ethics.