Argues the importance of caring work to health promotion and maintenance, regardless of who performs it and where. Proctor illustrates the marginalization of caring work from organizational structures, policy debates and reward systems and identifies the problems for health created by its failure.

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 marginalization of caring work from formal organizational 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 should be useful reading for health professionals and policy makers alike.

Introduction - Theories of Health - Trends in Health and Illness - Caring for Health - Accomplishing Caring as Labour - Accomplishing Caring in Multi-Professional, Multi-Agency Settings - Measuring Nursing: Progress and Pitfalls - Managing Demand Through Care - Concluding Remarks - Bibliography - Index