Comprehensive care and accompaniment: presuppositions, attitudes, and scope

This article proposes a theoretical-conceptual reflection on accompaniment as a fundamental relational style of comprehensive care, with a primary focus on the healthcare field. Based on a narrative and critical review of philosophical, ethical, and healthcare literature, the work draws on the anthropology of care-especially Francesc Torralba's personalist philosophical perspective-to establish care as a structural dimension of the human condition, intrinsically linked to vulnerability and relationality. The hypothesis is that accompaniment constitutes a privileged pathway for the humanization of healthcare in contexts marked by increasing technification and standardization of care. From this perspective, accompaniment is understood as a comprehensive practice oriented toward the whole person, addressing the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions in an articulated manner. The analysis incorporates a multidimensional understanding of vulnerability-ontological, situational, relational, and technological-emphasizing its relevance in the post-COVID-19 context and its ethical implications for the clinical relationship and moral responsibility. The article concludes by highlighting the value of accompaniment as a relational framework for more humanized and person-centered healthcare practices.