Jean Watson's Theory of Caring: The Importance of Interaction and Relationship between Nurse and Patient

Bringing these two concepts together is like having an umbrella during a rain storm; individually they are helpful and necessary but together they are the perfect combination. Caring is that feeling deep down that drives nurses to strive for and promote the notion of human flourishing. To help patients achieve the best possible health that they can. It is important to utilize nursing skills of honesty, taking risks, critically thinking, compassion, creativity, and caring (MacCulloch, 2011). To care is to feel and understand what your patient is going through influencing action to help the patient achieve their best possible self, and then allow both the patient and one’s self to grow in every aspect of life; to flourish inside the body and as a member of the community.

Human caring is what sets nursing apart from other professions. As Watson (1998) stated, “care and love are the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mysterious of cosmic forces: they comprise the primal universal psychic energy. Caring is the essence of nursing and the most central and unifying focus for nursing practice” (p. 32-33). It is important to establish a good nurse-patient relationship in order to create a healing environment that would meet patient’s needs on all levels including physical, mental/emotional and spiritual, promote recovery, maintain health, and create positive outcomes. Jean Watson emphasized the importance of human

The framework used is made explicit and has been adapted by a previous theorist. The framework is detailed to clarify caring within a literature context (Enns, 2007). It conceptualizes that caring has both humanistic traits and physical behaviours from the perspectives of both the nurses and the patients (Enns, 2007). The research question is clearly stated as “(w)hat are the expressions of caring

Caring is thought to coincide with good nursing practice. As guided by the concept analysis framework of Walker and Avant (1983), an attempt is made to gain better understanding of the constituent properties of caring. This includes the evaluation of various definitions of caring, key attributes, antecedents, consequences, and the perception of caring from the patients and nurses point of view. Then, drawing a conclusion of the significance of caring, thereof.

Jean Watson’s Theory of Caring has six explicit assumptions. The first assumption is, ontological assumptions emphasizing on the oneness or the connectedness of the human beings. The nurse’s experiences and values are key points to the first assumption. The second is an epistemological assumption which states that there are many ways of knowing. This includes topics as oneself and patients to abstract topics and concepts in nursing. The third assumption mentions that there are diverse methods of knowing and that the collection of information is in various forms. This includes learning about cultures, talking to patients etc. The fourth assumption makes the diverse perspectives explicit in the caring model.

According to Fawcett and DeSanto-Madeya (2013), Watson’s Theory of Human Caring can be categorized as a middle- range theory due to its focus on the relation between use of the clinical caritas processes and the building of a transpersonal caring relationship within the context of caring occasion and caring consciousness. Theory of Human Caring honors the unity of the whole human being, while also attending to creating a healing environment (Watson, 2006). Caring is acknowledged as transpersonal, in that it goes beyond the ego-oriented human; it involves the one caring as well as the care receiver, and is mutual, intersubjective, and reciprocal (Watson, 2006). The integrity and usefulness of the theory will be evaluated based on Fawcett’s (2005) criteria. Why it can be argued that the Theory of Human Caring meet the Fawcett’s evaluation criteria, there is evidence of confusion and lack of simplicity.

The caring theory was grounded on a humanitarian perspective and is found on a humanistic approach toward human caring programs and experiences. It acknowledges that life with individuals and their community to the surrounding environment are somehow connect and affects wellbeing of everything involved. The nature of the theory caring implies that it embraces reflective investigations as well subjective and interpretative inquiries. The nursing profession uses nursing theories as the framework and foundation for practice.   Many people find nursing theories to be meaningless and of no use to the

A nurse-patient relationship is the basic requirements in all practice settings. Its usage is to manage communication between an organization and a public while maintaining boundaries in the therapeutic relationship. Based on Peplau’s interpersonal theory, communication takes place in a nurse-client relationship where therapeutic process occurs involving complex factors such as environment, attitudes, practices, and beliefs in the dominant culture (seu.edu, 2015). The actions of each person in a nurse-patient relationship is measured on the collaboration of their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Nurse’s work to attain, maintain, and restore the patient’s health until patient have fulfilled the health care needs. Patient must be guided and provided a well-respected environment until a better health and specific needs are fully considered in the relationship. In this kind of setting, nurse’s must create relationship with patients by communicating receptivity, assimilating the concepts of empathy, trust, genuineness, respect, and confidentiality into their interactions.

The theory of transpersonal caring is the nursing theory of Jean Watson. The essence of her theory is “caring for the purpose of promoting healing, preserving dignity, and respecting the wholeness and interconnectedness of humanity.” (George, 2010) The four major components of Watson’s theory are the human being, health, environment/society and nursing. Watson embraces

Kristen M. Swanson’s Caring Theory is the solution in bridging the gap between nursing practice and theory. It offers an explanation of the links between patient well-being and the caring process (Tonges & Ray, 2011). Swanson explained that nurses should be able to demonstrate that they care about their patients, and that caring about their wellbeing is as important as their patients’ current medical problem (Tonges & Ray, 2011).

It is evident that nursing theorists, scholars and health care professions have varying interpretations of what caring is or should be. In the middle of all these disparity, caring is a vital component of the nursing practice and the key to choosing the concept of caring is because it is very essential when it comes to health care. This paper tries to make clear the concept of caring in the field of nursing and it makes use of the Walker and Avant outline to support the concept. It starts with recognizing the concept and its functions. It then identifies three emerging attributes of caring will be identified and a description of each will be given. At last, the paper will recognize antecedents, the effects or consequences and

Swanson's (1993) Theory of Caring is structured around five principles that encompass the overall definition of caring in nursing practice. This theory states that caring revolves around five categories: knowing, being with, doing for, enabling, and maintaining belief. When applied to nursing practice, each of these five categories can fuel the caregiver's attitude and improve overall patient well-being. In nursing, as well as other areas caring can be defined as, "a nurturing way of relating to a valued other toward whom one feels a personal sense of commitment and responsibility'. Upon examination, the five processes of Swanson's Theory of Caring can be used in nursing practice to achieve an enhanced

The purpose of this paper is to define the concept of caring, provide a literature review and state why this concept is important to nursing and advanced practice nursing as well as in non- nursing theories, such as the Care Theory. We will also look at the critical attributes of the concept of caring, as well as how caring is recognized, assess and used in practice and research. Finally we will explain how caring is addressed in Dorothea Orem’s Self Care and Self Care Deficit Theory.

This paper will explore Jean Watson’s theory of transpersonal human caring as well as a description of the major concepts of Watson’s theory. I will apply Watson’s theory to two nurse/ patient relationships and describe the caring moments that occurred. I will discuss Watson’s major assumptions and relate this to person, health, and nursing in the health care environment. I will also describe how Watson’s carative factors were utilized in a transpersonal relationship with the application of four carative factors. Lastly I will conclude with a reflection

Jean Watson's theory of nursing is based on the ideas of a number of philosophers and psychologists, including Carl Rogers, most specifically on his "phenomenological psychology and philosophy" (Tourville and Ingalls, 2003, p. 21). Her theory evolved over at least two decades of diverse experiences. Watson's theory is referred to as Transpersonal Caring because it emphasizes unity in the world (Tourville and Ingalls, 2003). Watson proposed that caring is a natural act for humans and it becomes a moral principle at the point when a patient and a nurse share a caring experience (Watson 2007). According to Watson, the goal of nursing is to help the patient achieve harmony of mind, body and spirit (Watson, 2007).