ABSTRACT
Introduction Over the last decades, several research lines have been carried out to investigate factors hindering
or promoting patient’s safety and quality of care. Among them, the Fundamentals of Care (FOC) framework has
reached an increased relevance worldwide. The aim of this narrative review is to summarize the debate on FOC’s
concept, as well as its commonalities and differences with other relevant theoretical frameworks, and to underline
some practical implications.
Methods A narrative literature review has been performed in 2020. Studies have been identified in Medline (via
PubMed) and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases, and the International
Learning Collaborative website by using the following keywords: ‘Fundamentals of Care’, ‘Fundamental of Care’,
‘Nursing’; publications performed by the eminent authors in the field (prof. Kitson A. & Feo R) have also been
retrieved.
Results The nurse-patient relationship is a crucial component to meet the fundamental care needs, articulated in
physical, relational, and socio-psychological dimensions. Commonalities with the patient-centred care movement
and with that of compassionate and unfinished nursing care have been summarized. Moreover, models of care
delivery, studies highlighting the perspective of patients with regards to the FOC and the relevance of nursing
minimum data set have been highlighted.
Conclusions It is important to continue to build a professional and scientific dialogue on fundamentals of care by
including them in the professional and scientific agenda of priorities
