Watson's Theory of Human Caring

WATSON’S
THEORY OF
HUMAN CARING
Abstract
According to Watson (1997), the core of the Theory of Caring is that “humans cannot
be treated as objects and that humans cannot be separated from self, other, nature, and
the larger workforce”. Her theory encompasses the whole world of nursing; with the
emphasis placed on the interpersonal process between the care giver and care
recipient. The theory is focused on “the centrality of human caring and on the caring-
to-caring transpersonal relationship and its healing potential for both one who is
caring and the one who is being cared for” (Watson, 1996). Watson’s hierarchy of
needs begins with lower-order biophysical needs, which include the need for food and
fluid, elimination and ventilation. Next are the lower-order psychophysical needs,
which include the need for activity, inactivity, and sexuality. Finally are the higher-
order needs, which are psychosocial. These include the need for achievement,
affiliation, and self-actualization.
Introduction
Nursing is defined by caring. At Redlands Community Hospital, nursing has
embraced the theory of Jean Watson’s Caring Science. Caring Science helps us
to embrace the positive energy that flows from an integrated mind, body and
spirit and is mutually rewarding to both the patient and the nurse. Forged by
the vision of Florence Nightingale who asserted that the “”role of nurse is to
put her patient in the best position to be able to self-heal”, nurses are optimally
positioned to be the heart of healing. By actively engaging in caring through
authentic presence and intentionality, nurses is able to optimize her patient’s
ability to heal from within.
Background of Jean Watson
Jean Watson is an American nurse theorist
and nursing professor who is best known
for her Theory of Human Caring. She is
the author of numerous texts, including
Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of
Caring. Watson’s research on caring has
been incorporated into education and
patient care at hundreds of nursing schools
and healthcare facilities around the world.
Early Life
Watson was born on June 10, 1940 in Williamson, West Virginia. Jean
Watson graduated from the Lewis Gale School of Nursing in Roanoke,
Virginia in 1961. She continued her nursing studies at the University of
Colorado at Boulder, earning a B.S. in 1964 and M.S. in psychiatric and
mental health nursing in 1961, and a Ph.D. in educational psychology and
counseling in 1973. She has been awarded nine honorary doctoral degrees in
six countries.
Academic Appointments
Watson is a Distinguished Professor of Nursing at the University of
Colorado, where she formerly served as a Dean of Nursing.
Leadership Achievements
She is a past president of the National League of Nursing.
Honors and Awards
1999: Norman Cousins Award, Fetzer Institute.
Caring Theory
Watson developed the Theory of Human Caring. She founded the non-profit Watson Caring
Science Institute in 2008. The ten primary carative factors are:
1. The formation of a humanistic-altruistic system of values
2. The instillation 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 of a supportive, protective and/or corrective mental, physical, socio-
cultural, and spiritual environment
9. Assistance with the gratification of human needs
10. The allowance of existential-phenomenological forces
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. The instillation of 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. The cultivation of sensitivity to one’s self and to the 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
sensitivity 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 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 external 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 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.
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, repeated, nurtures, 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 focused on health promotion and treatment of disease.
She believes that holistic health care is central to the practice of caring in nursing.
She defines using 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 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 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
Characteristics of a theory
• Logical in nature
• Relatively simple
• Generalizable
• Based on phenomenological studies that generally ask questions rather than
state hypotheses.
• Can be used to guide and improve practice.
• Supported by the theoretical work of numerous humanists, philosophers,
develop mentalists, and psychologists.
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 carative factors primarily delineate the psychosocial needs of the
person.
• Needs further research to apply in practice.
Conclusion
Watson provides many useful concepts for the practice of nursing. She ties
together many theories commonly used in nursing education. The detailed
descriptions of the carative factors can give guidance to those who wish to
employ them in practice or research.

Watson's Theory of Human Caring

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Watson's Theory of Human Caring

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Watson's Theory of Human Caring

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

WATSON’S

2. The instillation of faith-hope

5. The expression of feelings, both positive and negative

7. Promotion of interpersonal teaching-learning

9. Assistance with the gratification of human needs

You might also like