Topic 5: Jean Watsons (Theory of Human Caring)

Personal Life:
 After graduation 1961, he married her husband, Douglas, and moved west to his native
state of Colorado.
 1997, experienced an accidental injury that resulted in the loss of her left eye.
 1998, her husband whom she considerers as her physical and spiritual partner, and her
best friend passed away
 She states, she is “attempting to integrate these wounds into my life and work”
 Privilege of experiencing and receiving my own theory through the care from my
husband and loving nurse friend and colleagues is one the gifts through suffering.
 Personal life-altering events contributed to her writing her third book, which is the
Postmodern Nursing and Beyond.

Dr. Jean Watson’s theory of caring “Watson’s Philosophy and Science of Caring is concerned
with how nurses express care to their patients.”
 Philosophy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring is mainly concerns about “how nurses
care” for their patients

Compassion - often a trait required of nurses.

Taking care of the patients’ need is its primary purpose
how that caring progress into better plans.

Watson’s Theory of Caring Major Elements:

 Developed in 1979
 Carative Factors (has 10 factors)
- Faith-Hope
- Human need assistance
- Expressing positive and negative feelings
- Transpersonal teaching-learning
- Sensitivity to self and to others
 Transpersonal caring relationship
 Caring Occasion/Caring moment
- Both the nurse and the one being cared for can be influenced by the caring
moment
Assumptions about Caring; has 7
1. Caring can be effectively demonstrated and practiced only interpersonally
2. The practice of caring is central to nursing
3. Caring is as equally important as curing
Jean’s Watsons Metaparadigm
- Man/Person/Patient
- Health
- Environment
- Nursing

Human Being
- person is to be valued, cared for, respected and viewed in a holistic way, as body,
mind and spirit.
Environment 1
- Person’s environment should be conducive to healing and that person and their
environment are connected.
Environment 2
- Person’s frame of reference is also something that should be considered, and the
nurse should strive to stay within the person’s frame of reference.
Health
- Is viewed as overall functioning and distress and disharmony can be caused by
more than just disease processes.
Nursing
- Nurse should focus their care on heling and wholeness as opposed to tasks,
illness and disease.

Withing the gratification of Human Needs

Watson’s hierarchy begins;

1. Lower-order biophysical needs/survival needs
- Includes the need for food, fluid, elimination, and ventilation.
2. Lower-order psychophysical needs/functional needs
- Includes need for activity, inactivity, and sexuality.
3. Higher order psychosocial needs/integrative needs
- Includes the need for achievement, and affiliation.
4. Higher order intrapersonal-interpersonal/growth-seeking need.
- Need for self-actualization

Nursing process outline in Watson’s model;

 Assessment - includes observation, identification, and review of the problem.

 Care plan - helps the nurse to determine how variables would be examined or measured
and how data would be collected.
 Intervention - implementation of the care plan and data collection.
 Evaluation - analyzes the data, interprets the results.
Carative Factors and Caritas Processes

Carative Factors (focus on specific actions)

- The formation of a humanistic-altruistic system of values
- The instillation of faith-hope
- The cultivation of sensitivity to one’s self and others
Caritas Processes (focus on nurse’s overall quality of the nurse-patient relationship)
- Developing and sustaining a helping trusting, authentic caring relationship.

- Practice of loving-kindness and equanimity within the context of caring

consciousness

- Cultivation of one’s own spiritual practices and transpersonal self-going beyond

the ego-self.

In order to apply Watson’s theory; 3T’s

- Time - must be spent with the patient to understand “their” story
- Time - needed to listen and understand each unique situation
- Time - restriction are obvious in hospital scenarios, acute care centers etc.

Strengths & Weakness

Strength
- Applied in any are of nursing
- Addresses all aspects of the health and illness
Weakness
- Lack of concrete guidelines - do not have specific steps

How to integrate Jean Watson’s theory into nursing practice;

- Establishing a caring relationship with patients
- Treat patients as holistic beings
- Display unconditional acceptance
- Treat patients with positive regard
- Promote health through knowledge and intervention
- Spend uninterrupted time with patient

Conclusion
- Includes the nurse being involved
- Focusing on the point in time that is occurring.