Watson’s caring theory typifies the archetype of a paragon nurse (Cara, 2006). This theory shifts nursing from ‘a job’, to a professional entity where people enjoy what they do. By upholding Watson’s caring theory, nurses not only exercise the art of caring but also expand their actualization. This theory tries to strike a balance between the cared and the caregiver hence tackling the health issues of the two parties and offering a tributary channel for nurses to discover meaning in their exploits.
Background
Jean Watson hinges her theory of human care on caring science whereby, philosophical and ethical fundaments are part of professional nursing. This theory incorporates both science and art and offers a model that espouses liberal arts, mind-body-spirit medicine, and spirituality in the nursing profession. According to Watson (2007), trans-personal caring recognizes the oneness of life. This chain of caring emanates from an individual and moves to others, society, and eventually to the universe. Caring science studies essentially encompass reflective, objective, subjective and interpretative derivatives (Watson, 2007). Moreover, these studies embrace ontological, historical, ethical, and philosophical researches. Caring science is a growing field that has found its way into the nursing profession among other multidisciplinary fields of study.
Major Concepts in this Theory
According to Cara (2006), elements of Jean Watson’s theory on care entail three major elements, that is, creative factors, transpersonal caring relationships, and the caring moment.
Creative Factors
Watson uses causative factors as a pathfinder to the gist of nursing, which is caring. She deliberately uses the word ‘creative’ to counterpoint formal medicine’s term ‘curative.’ These creative factors seek to acknowledge human attributes of nursing, inner lives, and immanent experiences of patients (Favero, Meier, Lacerda, Mazza and Kalinowski, 2009). There are ten creative factors, which include a humanistic-selfless system of value, personal and other’s sensitivity, faith and hope, help-trust care relationship, expression of positive and negative feelings, proactive problem-solving relationship, assistance to human needs, wholesome supportive environment, experiential-philosophical-spiritual powers and transpersonal teaching and learning (Cara, 2006). However, as Watson continued to work on her theory, she premised the construct of clinical Caritas. What do they entail? Clinical Caritas incorporate greater spiritual attributes into the existing factors. This entails the development of one’s spiritual patterns that supersedes ego and opening to others with sensibility and compassionateness. It also espouses the development and sustenance of help-trust relationships between patients and nurses. According to Favero et al (2009), this new construct also contains the creation of a healing environment whereby wholeness, comfort, beauty, peace, and dignity are potential.
Transpersonal Caring Relationship
In Watson’s view, this relationship qualifies a peculiar case of human care where the line between the cared and the caregiver is very thin (Cara, 2006). The consciousness of these two people comes together in terms of experience in the past, feelings in the present, and expectations in the future. This relationship entails the entirety of human experience including feelings, spiritual beliefs, environmental considerations, and one’s perception among others. This is a two-way system whereby, the shift is not on the care alone, but also the caregiver (Favero et al, 2009). The nurse realizes his or her cognizance and veritable presence of being in a caring instance with the patient. This moment influences both the caregiver and the cared regarding the choices and actions taken within the relationship. Actions from this relationship may become part of one’s life history. A transpersonal relationship incorporates caring moments when it countenances the presence of the spirits of both parties going beyond the limits of receptiveness and trust (Pilkington, 2005).
Caring Moment
Caring occasion also known as the caring moment is the occasion where a nurse and patient associate in space and time, creating a human caring moment (Watson, 2007). Regardless of the differences between these two people, they form a human-to-human relationship. This relationship borrows heavily from creative factors that define this stage.
The first creative factor here is sensitivity to self and others. In this context, a nurse’s moral commitment is towards protecting the patient and upholding human self-worth. The nurse’s caring cognizance is geared towards preserving honor thus p
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