Most health care systems across the globe are exposed to risk of dehumanizing patient care. Caring is essential in all human endeavors; it is the core of nursing practice in the clinical, administrative, educational, and/or research practice. Care is a vital fuel among nurses (Messner & Lewis, 2000), to understand their needs and purposes, and without it nothing can create a successful interaction among them. A hand held, grief or joy carved up and the questions listened to or responded to are known moments of caring (Campbell, 2003).
Being informed by Watson’s caring theory enables one to revisit the profound proficient roots and values as epitome of an ideal nurse. Overview of Watson’s Theory of Human Caring The increasing broad-based knowledge, which guide nurses in the practice of their profession, appears to be very useful to date, in both clinical and theoretical issues. One very popular nursing theory and practically applied in the health discipline is the theory of Jean Watson – The Theory of Human Caring.
The proponent of the theory is Dr. Watson, a female American nursing scholar originated from West Virginia and then settled in Boulder, Colorado. She has degree in nursing and psychology, master’s degree in psychiatric-mental health nursing, and Ph. D. in educational psychology and counseling. As cited by Kozier (2004), Jean Watson in 1979 believes that that central in nursing is the practice of caring. According to Watson, there are “carative factors” which should be considered in providing nursing interventions to patients.
These factors are also being referred to the Core of Nursing which can be outlined accordingly: (a) Forming a humanistic-altruistic system of values; (b) Instilling faith and hope; (c) Cultivating sensitivity to one’s self and others; (d) Developing a helping-trust (human care) relationship (e) Promoting and accepting the expression of positive and negative feelings; (f) Systematically using the scientific problem-solving method for decision making; (g) Promoting interpersonal teaching-learning; (h) Providing a supportive, protective, or corrective mental, physical, socio-cultural, and spiritual environment; (h) Assisting with the gratification of human needs; and (i) Allowing for existential-phenomenologic forces. As her theory evolved, her concept of carative factors has now been replaced into clinical caritas. The word “caritas” was drawn from the Greek vocabulary, meaning “to cherish and to give special loving attention”.
This concept can be translated into the following processes: Practice of loving kindness and calmness; Being authentically present, and enabling and sustaining the deep belief system and subjective life world of self and the one-being-cared-for; Cultivation of one’s own spiritual practices and transpersonal self, going beyond ego self, opening to others with sensitivity and compassion; Developing and sustaining a helping-trusting, authentic caring relationship;
Being present to, and supportive of, the expression of positive and negative feelings as a connection with deeper spirit of self and the one-being-cared-for; Creative use of self and all ways of knowing as part of the caring process; to engage in artistry of caring-healing practices; Engaging in genuine teaching-learning experience that attends to unity of being and meaning, attempting to stay within others’ frames of reference; Creating healing environment at all levels (physical as well as non-physical), subtle environment of energy and consciousness, whereby wholeness, beauty, comfort, dignity, and peace are potentiated;.
Assisting with basic needs, with an intentional caring consciousness; administering human care essentials, which will alignt of mind body spirit, wholeness, and unity of being in all aspects of care; Tending to both the embodied spirit and evolving spiritual emergence. Opening/attending to spiritual-mysterious and existential dimensions of one’s own life-death; soul care for self and one-being-cared-for.