Caring, Curing, Coping: Nurse, Physician, and Patient Relationships

A popular conception of medical care is that nurses care, physicians cure, and patients cope. The significant theme that runs throughout this volume is that the fundamental mission of medicine is caring, and curing may be only one component of that broad mission. Each of the chapters speaks to that theme, although each approaches it from a different perspective.
This publication was made possible by a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. We acknowledge with gratitude the material support of the Foundation and, in particular, we wish to thank Robert Vaughan, the Executive Director of the Foundation, and his staff for their suggestions, encouragement, and support. By partially funding this publication, the Foundation makes possible the wider consideration of a neglected theme in philosophy and medicine that was treated at a conference the Foundation supported. The Conference, "Coping, Curing, Caring: Patient, Physician, Nurse Relationships," was sponsored by the Departments of Philosophy and Nursing at Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, Virginia, and funded through a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy.