Professionals’ ideals of care in the context of technological innovation in healthcare, a focus group study

Despite increasing technological integration in healthcare, professionals consistently upheld relational ideals of care. They felt personally responsible for providing relational care, and experienced guilt and distress when unable to do so. Systemic pressures, such as time constraints, documentation demands, and individualized responsibility, threaten these ideals, underscoring the need for broader institutional, political, and societal support to sustain professional relational care.