PHILOSOPHY

AND
SCIENCE OF
CARING
 Started her education in West Virginia and
then attended Lewis Gale School of Nursing
in Roanake, Virginia.

distinguished Professor and Director of

Center of Human Caring, School of Nursing,
University of Colorado Health Science Center

fellow in an American Academy of Nursing

was awareded numerous awards including a

Visiting Kellog Fellowship at Western
Jean Australia Instistute of technology and an
International Fullbright Award
Watson
She noted that the ideas associated with her
philosophy and theory of human caring are
concerned with spirit than matter, flux rather
than form, inner knowledge and power
rather than from circumstances

Embedded with persistent values and

imperatives related to human interaction
that flows between the one-caring-for and
the one-cared for
Jean
Watson
METAPARADIGM IN
NURSING
 PERSON
Human Being is a valued person in and of him to be cared for, respected,
nurtured, understood, and assisted. In general, it is a philosophical view
of a person as a fully functional integrated self. She viewed human as
greater than, and different from, the sum of his parts.
 HEALTH
Health refers to unity and harmony within the mind, body, and soul. It is
also associated with the degree of congruence between self as perceived
and as experienced. Watson, in addition to WHO's definition, include these
three elements:

A high level of over-all physical, mental, and social

functioning A general adaptive maintenance level of daily
functioning
The absence of illness (or the presence of efforts that lead
to its absence)
 N URSIN G
Watson sees Nursing as having to move educationally in the two areas of
stress and developmental conflicts to provide holistic health care, which
she believes is central to the practice of caring in Nursing. She asserts
that nursing's social, moral and scientific contributions to humankind and
society lie it its commitment to human care ideals in theory, practice, and
research.
BASIC
ASSUM PTION S
ABOUT THE 0. Caring can be effectively demonstrated and practiced
only interpersonally.
SCIENCE OF 1

CARING 0.
Caring responses accept a person not only as he or she is now
but as what he or she may become.
2
A caring environment is one that offers the development of potential
0. while allowing the person to choose the best action for himself or herself
3 at given point of the time

Caring is more "healthogenic" than is curing. The practice of caring

0. integrates biophysical knowledge with knowledge of human behavior to
4 generate or promote health and to provide care to those who are ill. A
science of caring is therefore complementary to the science of curing

0. The practice of caring is central to

5 nursing
 TEN CARATIVE FACTORS
01. Formation of a Humanistic-altruistic system of values

02. Instillation of faith-hope

03. Cultivation of sensitivity to one's self and to others

04 Development of helping-trusting, human caring

.
relationship
05.
Promotions and acceptance of the expression of positive and negative
06.
feelings Systematic use of a creative problem-solving caring process
07.
Promotion of transpersonal teaching-learning
08.
Provision for supportive, protective, and corrective mental, physical,
09 societal, and spiritual environment
.
Assistance with gratification of human needs
10.
Allowance for existential-phenomenological-spiritual forces
 Practic
e
Watson is an eternal optimist and she writes from a
deep place about the personal as well as the sacred.
This philosophy invites to explore one's curiosities
about the origins of his/her call to care. Her writing
encourages explorations of questions such as:

"What calls me to care?"

"What is the root of my caring
response?" "How will I respond?"
"Why do I fail to
ACCEPTANCE IN respond?" "When is it
hard to care?"
NURSING "How will I sustain and nurture my
caring consciousness?"
COMMUNITY "Who will care for me?"
 A study of Watson's framework leads the reader through an inspiring experience by
emphasizing deep inner reflection and personal growth, communication skills, use of
self- transpersonal growth, attention to both nurse and patient, and the human caring
process that potentiates human health and healing.