II.Concepts Its main concept is transpersonal human caring, best understood within the ancillary concepts of life, illness and health (Fawcett, 2002)
That harmony produces self-knowledge, self-respect, self-healing, and self-care processes (Fawcett). Jean Watson sees caring as a science, characterized by a humanitarian and human science orientation with human caring processes, phenomena and experiences (Vance 2010)
Because health is not viewed as an objective state, or the mere absence of illness, it is stressed that the nurse must ask constructive and open-ended questions of the patient to determine his or her state of physical soundness, such as 'what are your health priorities.' The nurse and patient work together to establish mutual goals, rather than the nurse imposing goals on the patient (Cara 2003)
Human caring demands a fully actualized self on the part of the nurse, to create a fully actualized patient. It "allows for the continuous caring component that medicine does not have; nurses and nursing working from a human caring philosophy bring a different consciousness and energy of wholeness to any setting, offering a counterpoint to the medicalizing-clinicalizing of human experiences in the conventional institutional industrial models of practice (Fawcett 2006: 216)
He defines the human being as a valuable person who deserves to be assisted, understood, nurtured, respected, and cared for. Every human being is unique, with different viewpoints, needs, and perspectives; and a nurse has a duty to care for, and assist them based on their unique preferences (Griffin & Landers, 2014)
Watson's theory enables recognizing such patters and lack of attention to certain things to help therefore those more in need of assistance. "…a more inclusive theory of bioethics encompassing the standpoints and experiences of women and other marginalized social groups, on the examination of the dominant bioethical discourse that privileges those already empowered, and on the creation of new methodologies and strategies…" (Donchin, 2004, p
"Watson's theory is proposed as a nursing framework that is philosophically congruent with contemporary global approaches to community health and health promotion. An overview of her theory identifies the centrality of caring, holism, and ecology in the theory as it has evolved over the past 20 years" (Falk Rafael, 2000, p
"Watson's Theory of Human Caring was selected as the framework of this study due to its holistic and comprehensive nature for application in nursing practice. It covers not only physical aspect of care, but also covers spiritual aspect" (Hattakhit, Boonyun & Engebretson, 2014, p
Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring or Caring Science involves exercising core practices/principles. "Watson's theory of human caring focuses on holistic care and the authentic relationship between caregivers and patients" (Lukose, 2011, p
It was my initial attempt to bring meaning and focus to nursing as an emerging discipline and distinct health profession that had its own unique values, knowledge, and practices, and its own ethic and mission to society. The work was also influenced by my involvement with an integrated academic nursing curriculum (Parker & Smith, 2010, p
"Watson suggests and invites us to consider the nurse as the environment. In this evolved framework we are invited to consider the practitioner and his/her evolved caring consciousness, presence, intentionality, and so forth, as the critical ingredient in the environment" (Watson, 2007, p
In other words, the nurse becomes adept in the scientific aspects of the profession as well as in the caring aspects. To accomplish the goal of measuring caring, Watson and her colleagues developed the Caring Factor Survey, which has evolved into the Caring Factor Survey-Care Provider Version (Johnson, 2011)
Aurora's mission recognizes that relationship building and strengthening are cornerstones of nursing. This is why Watson's theories are often described as being "holistic," (Lukose, 2011, p
This allows for what Aurora would recognize as the blending of humanistic with scientific knowledge. Moreover, subsequent research has found that caring theory is effective in that "experienced, hospital-based nurses and those demonstrating greater familiarity with Watson's theory had higher caring scores," (Vandenhouten, et al
These ten factors include the following. First, practicing loving-kindness means developing a "caring consciousness," (Watson Caring Science Institute, 2010, p