Final answer:
Client centered care is a healthcare approach that values autonomy, beneficence, and care ethics, focusing on the expressed needs and preferences of the client while being sensitive to their values, customs, and beliefs. It is grounded in care ethics which is rooted in feminist theory and emphasizes the importance of compassion, empathy, and interpersonal relationships in healthcare.
Step-by-step explanation:
The principle that defines being focused on the clients' expressed needs and preferences and sensitivity to their values, customs, and beliefs is known as client centered care. This approach to healthcare emphasizes autonomy, allowing patients to exercise agency and make decisions based on informed consent, and also incorporates the principle of beneficence, which promotes actions that are beneficial to others. Drawing from care ethics, client centered care takes a character-centered approach, valuing the caring relationship as a central paradigm and considering subjective and concrete factors to guide ethical decisions in healthcare settings. Care ethics, which is rooted in feminist theory, places significant importance on traits such as compassion, empathy, and understanding the importance of interpersonal relationships.
With its roots in theories presented by scholars such as Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings, the emphasis on care ethics contrasts with more traditional, principle-based ethics by focusing on morality through the lens of interpersonal relationships and feelings for significant others in an individual's life. It values the moral reasoning that accounts for the complexities of real life and concrete situations, promoting a healthcare practice that is sensitive and responsive to individual patient needs and societal values.