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Pragmatic View Of Watsons Theory

Goals

Provide an overview of Dr. Jean Watson's caring theory to the nursing community.

Facilitate the understanding of her work allowing nurses to readily apply this knowledge within their practice.

Objectives

Describe the general aspects of Watson's caring theory.

Describe how Watson's caring theory can be applied to clinical practice.

Describe the person through Watson's caring lens.

Describe the person's health through Watson's caring lens.

Describe nursing through Watson's caring lens.

Key Words: Watson's caring theory, clinical caritas processes, transpersonal caring relationships, caring occasion, clinical application of Watson's theory

Abstract

As most health care systems around the world are undergoing major administrative restructuring, we expose ourselves to the risk of dehumanizing patient care. If we are to consider caring as the core of nursing, nurses will have to make a conscious effort to preserve human caring within their clinical, administrative, educational, and/or research practice. Caring must not be allowed to simply wither away from our heritage.

To help preserve this heritage, caring theories such as those from Jean Watson, Madeleine Leininger, Simone Roach, and Anne Boykin are vital. Through this continuing education paper we will learn the essential elements of Watson's caring theory and explore an example of a clinical application of her work.

Introduction

The changes in the health care delivery systems around the world have intensified nurses' responsibilities and workloads. Nurses must now deal with patients' increased acuity and complexity in regard to their health care situation. Despite such hardships, nurses must find ways to preserve their caring practice and Jean Watson's caring theory can be seen as indispensable to this goal. Through this pragmatic continuing education paper, we will explore the essential elements of Watson's caring theory and, in a clinical application, illustrate...