The theorist I have chosen to write on is Jean Watson. Since I was in nursing school, the Watson theory of caring has been a fundamental part of my practice. I tailor my nursing care to this theory, and I have decided to discuss this theory. According to Wei and Watson (2019), Watson’s theory was founded on a holistic perspective and transpersonal psychology. It has a deep value system built on a continuing ethical-epistemic-ontological and unitary worldview. The main gist of Watson’s human caring theory is the transpersonal relationships and the human-to-human caring moments. Interventions based on Watson’s Human Caring Theory show promise in promoting patients’ psychological health, nurse job satisfaction and engagement, and nursing students’ confidence in clinical performance (Wei & Watson, 2019). Wei and Watson (2019) also explain that Watson’s Human Caring Theory includes Ten Carative factors, which evolve to Ten Caritas Processes. The Ten Caritas Processes include: practicing loving-kindness to self and others, being authentically present to enable faith, hope, and the inner-subjective life world of oneself and others, fostering one’s spiritual practices, developing trusting interpersonal caring relationships, forgiving and showing empathy to self and other, using all ways of knowing, engaging in genuine teaching-learning experiences, creating a caring-healing environment for all involved, valuing humanity, and embracing the unknowns and miracles in life (Wei & Watson, 2019).
Watson’s theory can also be applied to healthcare workers, especially nurses. Griffin et al. (2021) suggest that an important way of supporting team members is to incorporate the theory-based practices of Jean Watson’s Caring Science in the hospital. Watson’s Philosophy and Science of Caring is a nursing theory-based practice paradigm that speaks to the distinct stress nurses experience as they tend to their patient’s physical body, mental state, and emotional needs. Caring Science is a theory, an ethic, and a practice that reminds care providers why they chose the profession and offers micro-practices that allow care providers to cope with the unique emotional labor faced throughout a professional career. Watson reminds care providers to have an intentional approach to understanding the complexities of care and consider/reconsider a living theory of caring with our conscious living and working. These intentional practices help transform the care provider, so they understand the need to be whole individually first to be able to care for the patient (Griffin et al., 2021).
Reference
Griffin, C., Oman, K. S., Ziniel, S. I., Kight, S., Jacobs-Lowry, S., & Givens, P. (2021). Increasing the capacity to provide compassionate care by expanding knowledge of caring science practices at a pediatric hospital. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 35(1), 34–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.10.019
Wei, H., & Watson, J. (2019). Healthcare interprofessional team members’ perspectives on human caring: A directed content analysis study. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 6(1), 17–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2018.12.001
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