The Commodity of Care: Politics and Poor Nursing Care

The aim of the book is to analyse why poor nursing care is still occurring within care homes and hospitals in the UK, the USA, and Australia, despite numerous recommendations over more than 30 years. It became evident through the course of research that provision of care depended on the dominant political ethos, sometimes termed free market ideology or neoliberalism – terms describing an economic theory which claims the market should be the sole determinant of people’s lifestyle choices, and that the market should be free from government interference, since it is self-regulating.
The Commodity of Care documents the pervasive influence of some neoliberal reforms of healthcare. The emphasis will be on what negates good nursing care delivered with a compassionate attitude. Any reform, from whatever political perspective, that promotes good, compassionate care should be supported by all nurses, who should equally oppose measures that lead to poor and indifferent care.