Professional Loving Care

Book excerpt: This practice-based philosophical study presents the view that professional healthcare is not just one of the many paid professions. On the contrary, healthcare should be redefined as a modest but meaningful variant of enacted love for one's fellow human beings, practiced in an institutional context. There is a reciprocal side to it, as it is not just professionals who show loving care for their patients, residents, or clients. Those groups have feelings of gratitude, respect and affinity for the professionals, although not all of them are equally satisfied. Obviously, love should be understood in a non-romantic and non-erotic way, and its location is not the private sphere. Professional Loving Care is the condensed and updated version of Menslievende zorg, originally written within the context of the Low Countries, but dealing with issues that are relevant to western healthcare systems in general. The Dutch edition was published in 2005 and by 2011 it was in its sixth reprint. Many professionals and patients stated that the book helped rethinking both the practice and the basis of professional healthcare in late modern society.