JEAN WATSON’S THEORY OF HUMAN CARING
Dr. Jean Watson is
a nurse theorist who developed “Philosphy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring” or
“Caring Science”
and founder of Watson Caring Science Institute.
Jean Watson (June 10, 1940 – present) is an American
nurse theorist and nursing professor who is well known for her “Philosophy and
Theory of Transpersonal Caring.” She has also written numerous
texts, including Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring. Watson’s study
on caring has been integrated into education and patient care to various
nursing schools and healthcare facilities all over the world.
Nowadays, a lot of people
choose nursing as a profession. There are many reasons to consider in becoming
a professional nurse, but compassion is often a trait required of nurses. This
is for the reason that taking care of the patients’ needs is its primary
purpose. Jean Watson’s “Philosophy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring” mainly
concerns on how nurses care for their patients, and how that caring progresses
into better plans to promote health and wellness, prevent illness and restore
health.
In today’s world, nursing
seems to be responding to the various demands of the machinery with less
consideration of the needs of the person attached to the machine. In Watson’s
view, the disease might be cured, but illness would remain because, without
caring, health is not attained. Caring is the essence of nursing and connotes
responsiveness between the nurse and the person; the nurse co-participates with
the person. Watson contends that caring can assist the person to gain control,
become knowledgeable, and promote health changes
What is
Watson’s Theory of Transpersonal Caring?
According to Watson’s theory, “Nursing is concerned with promoting health, preventing
illness, caring for the sick, and restoring health.” It
focuses on health promotion, as well as the treatment of diseases. According to
Watson, caring is central to nursing practice, and promotes health better than
a simple medical cure.
The nursing model also states that caring can be demonstrated and
practiced by nurses. Caring for patients promotes growth; a caring environment
accepts a person as he or she is, and looks to what he or she may become.
THE SEVEN ASSUMPTIONS
1. Caring can be effectively demonstrated and
practiced only interpersonally.
2. Caring consists of carative factors that
result in the satisfaction of certain human needs.
3. Effective caring promotes health and
individual or family growth.
4. Caring responses accept person not only as
he or she is now but as what he or she may become.
5. A caring environment is one that offers
the development of potential while allowing the person to choose the best
action for himself or herself at a given point in time.
6. Caring is more “ healthogenic” than is
curing. A science of caring is complementary to the science of curing.
7. The practice of caring is central to
nursing.
THE TEN PRIMARY
CARATIVE FACTORS
1. The formation of a humanistic- altruistic
system of values.
2. The installation of faith-hope.
3. The cultivation of sensitivity to one’s
self and to others.
4. The development of a helping-trust
relationship
5. The promotion and acceptance of the
expression of positive and negative feelings.
6. The systematic use of the scientific
problem-solving method for decision making
7. The promotion of interpersonal
teaching-learning.
8. The provision for a supportive, protective
and /or corrective mental, physical, socio-cultural and spiritual environment.
9. Assistance with the gratification of human
needs.
10.The allowance for existential-phenomenological
forces.
The first three carative factors
form the “philosophical foundation” for the science of caring. The remaining
seven carative factors spring from the foundation laid by these first three.
1. THE FORMATION OF A HUMANISTIC-
ALTRUISTIC SYSTEM OF VALUES
- Begins
developmentally at an early age with values shared with the parents.
- Mediated
through ones own life experiences, the learning one gains and exposure to
the humanities.
- Is
perceived as necessary to the nurse’s own maturation which then promotes
altruistic behavior towards others.
2. FAITH-HOPE
- Is
essential to both the carative and the curative processes.
- When
modern science has nothing further to offer the person, the nurse can
continue to use faith-hope to provide a sense of well-being through
beliefs which are meaningful to the individual.
3. CULTIVATION OF SENSITIVITY TO
ONE’S SELF AND TO OTHERS
- Explores
the need of the nurse to begin to feel an emotion as it presents itself.
- Development
of one’s own feeling is needed to interact genuinely and sensitively with
others.
- Striving
to become sensitive, makes the nurse more authentic, which encourages
self-growth and self-actualization, in both the nurse and those with whom
the nurse interacts.
- The
nurses promote health and higher level functioning only when they form
person to person relationship.
4. ESTABLISHING A HELPING-TRUST
RELATIONSHIP
- Strongest
tool is the mode of communication, which establishes rapport and caring.
- Characteristics
needed to in the helping-trust relationship are:
- Congruence
- Empathy
- Warmth
- Communication
includes verbal, nonverbal and listening in a manner which connotes
empathetic understanding.
5. THE EXPRESSION OF FEELINGS, BOTH
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
- “Feelings
alter thoughts and behavior, and they need to be considered and allowed
for in a caring relationship”.
- Awareness
of the feelings helps to understand the behavior it engenders.
6. THE SYSTEMATIC USE OF THE
SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM-SOLVING METHOD FOR DECISION MAKING
- The
scientific problem- solving method is the only method that allows for
control and prediction, and that permits self-correction.
- The
science of caring should not be always neutral and objective.
7. PROMOTION OF INTERPERSONAL
TEACHING-LEARNING
- The
caring nurse must focus on the learning process as much as the teaching
process.
- Understanding
the person’s perception of the situation assist the nurse to prepare a cognitive
plan.
8. PROVISION FOR A SUPPORTIVE, PROTECTIVE
AND /OR CORRECTIVE MENTAL, PHYSICAL, SOCIO-CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL ENVIRONMENT
- Watson
divides these into eternal and internal variables, which the nurse
manipulates in order to provide support and protection for the person’s
mental and physical well-being.
- The
external and internal environments are interdependent.
- Nurse
must provide comfort, privacy and safety as a part of this carative
factor.
9. ASSISTANCE WITH THE GRATIFICATION OF
HUMAN NEEDS
- It
is based on a hierarchy of need similar to that of the Maslow’s.
- Each
need is equally important for quality nursing care and the promotion of
optimal health.
- All
the needs deserve to be attended to and valued.
WATSON’S ORDERING OF NEEDS
- Lower
order needs (biophysical needs)
- The need for
food and fluid
- The need for
elimination
- The need for
ventilation
- Lower
order needs (psychophysical needs)
- The need for
activity-inactivity
- The need for
sexuality
- Higher order needs
(psychosocial needs)
- The need for achievement
- The need for
affiliation
- Higher order
need (intrapersonal-interpersonal need)
- The need for
self-actualization
10. ALLOWANCE FOR EXISTENTIAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL FORCES
- Phenomenology
is a way of understanding people from the way things appear to them, from
their frame of reference.
- Existential
psychology is the study of human existence using phenomenological
analysis.
- This
factor helps the nurse to reconcile and mediate the incongruity of viewing
the person holistically while at the same time attending to the
hierarchical ordering of needs.
- Thus
the nurse assists the person to find the strength or courage to confront
life or death.
WATSON’S THEORY AND THE
FOUR MAJOR CONCEPTS
1. HUMAN BEING
- Human
being refers to “….. a valued person in and of him or herself to be cared
for, respected, nurtured, understood and assisted; in general a
philosophical view of a person as a fully functional integrated self. He,
human is viewed as greater than and different from, the sum of his or her
parts”.
2. HEALTH
- Watson adds the following three elements to WHO definition of
health:
- A
high level of overall physical, mental and social functioning
- A
general adaptive-maintenance level of daily functioning
- The
absence of illness (or the presence of efforts that leads its absence)
3.
ENVIRONMENT/SOCIETY
- According
to Watson, caring (and nursing) has existed in every society.
- A
caring attitude is not transmitted from generation to generation.
- It
is transmitted by the culture of the profession as a unique way of
coping with its environment.
4. NURSING
- Nursing
is concerned with promoting health, preventing illness, caring for the
sick and restoring health”.
- It
focuses on health promotion and treatment of disease. She believes that holistic
health care is central to the practice of caring in nursing.
- She
defines nursing as…..
“a
human science of persons and human health-illness experiences that are
mediated by professional, personal, scientific, esthetic and ethical human
transactions”.
WATSON’S
THEORY AND NURSING PROCESS
- Nursing
process contains the same steps as the scientific research process. They
both try to solve a problem. Both provide a framework for decision making.
1.
ASSESSMENT
- Involves
observation, identification and review of the problem; use of applicable
knowledge in literature.
- Also
includes conceptual knowledge for the formulation and conceptualization of
framework.
- Includes
the formulation of hypothesis; defining variables that will be examined in
solving the problem.
2. PLAN
- It
helps to determine how variables would be examined or measured; includes a
conceptual approach or design for problem solving. It determines what data
would be collected and how on whom.
3. INTERVENTION
- It
is the direct action and implementation of the plan.
- It
includes the collection of the data.
4.
EVALUATION
- Analysis
of the data as well as the examination of the effects of interventions
based on the data.
- Includes
the interpretation of the results, the degree to which positive outcome
has occurred and whether the result can be generalized.
- It
may also generate additional hypothesis or may even lead to the generation
of a nursing theory.
WATSON’S THEORY AND THE
CHARACTERISTIC OF A THEORY
1. Logical in nature.
2. Relatively simple
3. Generelizable
4. Based on phenomenological studies that
generally ask questions rather than state hypotheses.
5. Can be used to guide and improve practice.
6. Supported by the theoretical work of
numerous humanists, philosophers, developmentalists and psychologists.
Carative Factors and Caritas
Processes
Carative
Factors
|
Caritas
Process
|
1. “The formation of a
humanistic-altruistic system of values”
|
“Practice of loving-kindness and
equanimity within the context of caring consciousness”
|
2. “The instillation of faith-hope”
|
“Being authentically present and
enabling and sustaining the deep belief system and subjective life-world of
self and one being cared for”
|
3. “The cultivation of sensitivity to one’s
self and to others”
|
“Cultivation of one’s own spiritual
practices and transpersonal self going beyond the ego self”
|
4. “Development of a helping-trust
relationship” became “development of a helping-trusting, human caring
relation” (in 2004 Watson website)
|
“Developing and sustaining a helping
trusting authentic caring relationship”
|
5. “The promotion and acceptance of the
expression of positive and negative feelings”
|
“Being present to, and supportive of,
the expression of positive and negative feelings as a connection with deeper
spirit and self and the one-being-cared for”
|
6. “The systematic use of the scientific
problem solving method for decision making” became “systematic use of a
creative problem solving caring process” (in 2004 Watson website)
|
“Creative use of self and all ways of
knowing as part of the caring process; to engage in the artistry of
caring-healing practices”
|
7. “The promotion of transpersonal
teaching-learning”
|
“Engaging in genuine teaching-learning
experience that attends to unity of being and meaning, attempting to stay
within others’ frame of reference”
|
8. “The provision of supportive,
protective, and (or) corrective mental, physical, societal, and spiritual
environment”
|
“Creating healing environment at all
levels (physical as well as nonphysical, subtle environment of energy and
consciousness, whereby wholeness, beauty, comfort, dignity, and peace are
potentiated)”
|
9. “The assistance with gratification of
human needs”
|
“Assisting with basic needs, with an
intentional caring consciousness, administering ‘human care essentials,’
which potentiate alignment of mind body spirit, wholeness, and unity of being
in all aspects of care”
|
10. “The allowance for
existential-phenomenological forces” became “allowance for
existential-phenomenological spiritual forces” (in 2004 Watson website)
|
“Opening and attending to
spiritual-mysterious and existential dimensions of one’s own life-death; soul
care for self and the one-being-cared for”
|
STRENGTHS
- This
theory places client in the context of the family, the community and the
culture.
- It
places the client as the focus of practice rather than the technology.
LIMITATIONS
- Biophysical
needs of the individual are given less important.
- The
ten caratiive factors primarily delineate the psychosocial needs of the
person.
- Needs
further research to apply in practice.