Table of Contents

Part I: The Ethical Significance of Nursing
Chapter 1: Trustworthiness
Chapter 2: Imagination
Chapter 3: Beauty
Chapter 4: Space
Chapter 5: Presence
Part II: The Ethical Significance of Nurses' Lives
Chapter 6: The Challenge of Unreasonable Demands
Chapter 7: The Threat of Becoming Automatons
Chapter 8: Being Good to Ourselves
Chapter 9: Creating a Civil Community
Chapter 10: Being Grateful
Chapter 11: Towards a Better World
Notes
Bibliography
Discussion Questions

About the Author

Mark Lazenby, FAAN, is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Yale University. He is an advanced practice registered nurse and holds a PhD in philosophy.

Reviews

"The chapters are thought provoking and the content provides opportunities for refection. [The book's] excellent resources can be used for individual refection and to stimulate group discussion. I would recommend this book to anyone who is already a registered nurse, regardless of their seniority and those who are considering entering the nursing profession." -- Andrew Southgate, Nursing Times
"Armed with a Ph.D. in philosophy, Lazenby infuses this expertise into his thought-provoking narrative, remarking on the importance of regard and mindfulness while at a patientâs bedside. He presents these crucial guideposts without dry textbook jargon but instead with engaging, relevant anecdotes from patients and nurses, offering his valuable tips with encouraging motivation. In a demanding industry confounded by the complications of encroaching
automation and both patient vulnerability and ever-increasing acuity, Lazenby â with boundless enthusiasm and positivity â seeks to inject the caregiving role with some much-needed kindness and sympathy while
still attaining the professional medical standards and goals nurses strive for." -- Kirkus Reviews, May 2017
"Mark Lazenby is right: Caring matters most. Yet we find ourselves in a rapidly changing health care system that seems more chaotic, stressful and uncaring than ever before--and in a society that continues to devalue caring as the foundation of health and healing. This book holds the promise for ensuring that nurses are outspoken advocates for bringing the elements of caring into our health care organizations, systems, and policies. For both new and seasoned
nurses who are concerned about the "business" of health care pushing out nurses' essential role and moral obligation to care for and about individuals, families and communities, Caring Matters Most is
essential reading. It is also essential reading for anyone concerned about whether our health care system and those who work in it understand how to make caring our primary mission. If we don't, we are lost." -Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, FAAN, Senior Policy Service Professor, George Washington University School of Nursing
"This "little book" details the big ideas that form the foundation of the nursing profession. It is a must read for those new to the profession and those long in the profession alike. In simple but powerful prose Mark Lazenby reminds us why we nurse and what it means to be a nurse." -Judith B. Krauss, MSN, RN, FAAN, Dean and Professor Emerita, Yale University, School of Nursing
"A crucial book for all nurses, novice or experienced, it made my heart sing and brought tears to my eyes. Lazenby says to be a nurse is to be 'compelled to care' and he beautifully details the ethics of that compulsion. Read Caring Matters Most to remember why we do this challenging, but ever so important, job of nursing." -Theresa Brown, PhD, BSN, RN, New York Times best-selling author of The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives
"Noble and often moving. An eloquent argument that caring, not reasoned principles, enables each of us to work towards a better world." -Richard A. Burton, MD, Author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Wrong
"Many have recommended the ethics of care as an approach to nursing ethics. Lazenby has provided an excellent account of what the ethics of care actually means for practitioners of the profession. His broadly Aristotelian approach begins by describing the ethical habits of a caring nurse. His approach is fresh and interesting; personal as well as erudite. He is a philosopher, but he writes as a nurse for his fellow nurses, providing dozens of concrete examples
of caring in action. A perfect book for nursing ethics students or anyone interested in the ethics of care and the healing professions." -Daniel Sulmasy, MD, PhD, MACP, Member, Presidential Commission
for the Study of Bioethical Problems
"Good nursing, Mark Lazenby reminds us, needs attentive care by trustworthy nurses, which regulatory requirements and formal accountability can never replace. A humane and timely reminder." -Onora O'Neill, The Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve