Jean Watson Research Paper
Caring for a Stranger: An Example of Watson 's Caring Theory
I never thought that I would find myself along a desert highway taking care of a man that I never knew. But early in my career this is exactly where I found myself. This is an example of displaying Watson’s Human Caring Theory, and how I took care of a man, in the middle of nowhere, with little more than a bottle of water and a pair of stolen gloves.
My future husband and I were driving home from Tucson, Arizona to Algona, Iowa, but we were stopping by Las Vegas, Nevada to get married along the way. We had spent our entire wedding budget to visit my dying grandmother one last time. This was a sad and happy time in my life and I spent most of the drive reflecting on how much …show more content…
my personal life was changing. I was entering a new life of marriage, and my grandmother was passing away. As we were driving, my husband pointed out smoke in the distance. I didn’t pay much attention to it as controlled burns are common in Arizona along the highway. We kept getting closer and the smoke kept getting bigger, then out of nowhere sirens came up behind us and whipped around faster than I have ever seen a police car drive. About a mile up the road the police car was stopped on the side of the road, and we saw a truck on fire, standing on its end, leaning on the side of a mountain. My husband pulled the car behind the police car. My instincts as a nurse kicked in right away. I grabbed what I had in the car, a bottle of water, and started running. The police officer came out of his car and ran along side of me. I identified myself as a nurse and he allowed me to continue. When we arrived at the scene, there was a Hispanic male, about 25 years old laying on the side of the road. There were some other men there as well that had reported the accident, and pulled the mad to safety. He was cut all over his body and was covered in blood; I reached up toward the police officer and told him to give me his gloves. I quickly assessed the man for injuries; he had an obvious open fracture of his lower leg, and a head injury. I quickly found out during his neurological assessment that the man spoke Spanish. The police officer was no help in this department, he did not speak Spanish, and I only had limited capability. The nearest trauma center was in Las Vegas, about 70 miles away the police officer told me, and it would be at least 20 minutes before the helicopter arrived to transport the patient. The officer told me that a ground ambulance was not going to report to the scene because it would take too long. He asked if I could look after the man while he started to interview the other people on the scene, and assess for other injuries.
A caring moment as described by Jean Watson (n.d.) is “connectedness with another person in a given moment.” In the moments after my assessment is when I connected with the stranger. I attempted to bring up in my memory any of the Spanish that I had learned in high school. I let the man know that help was on the way and that he would be taken care of by me until then. Watson’s Caring Theory started to evolve about 30 years ago when Jean Watson decided that there was more to nursing than just the technical, scientific side, there was also a caring side. Jean Watson contributes the development of her theory to Roger’s Science of Unitary Human Beings. Watson’s Theory encompasses ten carative factors, or caritas, each one having a different aspect of caring (Alligood, 2010). The ten carative factors or caritas are: 1. The deliberate loving and kindness to another person in the context of caring. 2. Being there for your patient and believing that they are an individual. 3. Going beyond ones’ self, and knowing your own beliefs. 4. Developing a trusting nurse-patient relationship. 5. Supporting positive and negative feelings of the one being cared for. 6. Display caring and healing as an art form. 7. Genuinly teaching the one being cared for, and learning from the one being cared for.
8. Creating an environment of healing where all aspects of the patient are addressed mind, body and soul. 9. Tending to the basic needs of the patient, physical, social and spiritual. 10. Caring for self and the life-death dimension, and the one being cared for (Caruso, Cisar, & Pipe, 2008). My interaction with this stranger can be described as a caring moment because I took the time to care.
Almost everybody stayed in their cars and did not bother to see if they could be of assistance. This was my wedding day, in no way did I want to get married dirty and covered in someone else’s blood. I could have also very easily stayed in my car and continued to get ready, but that would have been a disservice to me, the stranger, and to the career of nursing. A caring moment as described by second year nursing students is giving of oneself (Chipman, 1991). I feel that I gave of myself in this situation. I received no compensation and no praise. But this experience was rewarding. I will never forget this man and how I was able to keep him stable until the helicopter …show more content…
arrived. I learned many things about myself in this situation. I learned that I could take charge in an emergent situation, in the presence of authority. I could be resourceful in a strange environment with the limited supplies. The major thing that I learned about myself is that I could put my own needs and wishes aside for a stranger, and care more about them than myself. The Samueli Institute for Information Biology states that the characteristics of healing between healer and healee as “empathy, caring, love, warmth, trust, confidence, credibility, honesty, expectation, courtesy, respect, and communication (Quinn, Smith, Ritenbaugh, Swanson, & Watson, 2003).” It is hard to say how the patient perceived the caring moment. Since verbal communication was difficult, I relied on non-verbal communication. Some of the things that the stranger displayed was reaching, and squeezing my hand. We held hands during most of the interaction. When we would let go for some reason or another he would always reach for my hand to hold again. I feel that this was him displaying trust in me, and a need for comfort and closeness with a person. Communication is imperative in the nursing care moment. It ensures that safe, quality care is being delivered (Pabon & Wisotzkey, 2013). I feel that major barrier in developing our caring relationship was the lack of verbal communication. It was hard to understand his needs, if he was in pain, or what even happened to cause the car accident. It was also difficult for the stranger to understand what I was saying. I have since improved my Spanish speaking abilities, and now know that some of what I was saying to him must have sounded like a two year old speaking to him. This may have instilled fear into the stranger, and lessened my credibility with him. Having someone there that spoke Spanish would have been helpful, even if it was just conversational Spanish and not medical terminology. Jean Watson describes the nursing metaparadigm of human being, nursing, health, and environment in the following terms Personhood, Transpersonal Nursing-Caring-Healing, Health, Illness, Disease, and Environment (Alligood, 2010).
Personhood is the human being seen as a whole, made up of three parts: mind, body, and soul. Each person as a whole is larger than the separate parts put together. Transpersonal Nursing-Caring-Healing is the human to human connection between nurse and patient. The nurses’ goal is to help the patient establish equilibrium of mind, body, and spirit. Health, Illness, Disease is synchronization within the mind, body, and soul along with the synchronization between self and others. Environment is the physical and non-physical surroundings. Encompassing the nurse as “scared space” and promoting health and healing (Alligood,
2010). Some of the carative factors that were displayed in this situation were the instillation of faith and hope (Alligood, 2010). I displayed this by letting the stranger know that he was going to make it to the hospital, and that help was on the way. The systematic use of the scientific problem-solving method for decision making was displayed in several ways (Alligood, 2010). This was displayed by using the limited resources that were available to me, a pair of gloves and a bottle of water. The bottle of water was very cold, just out of the ice chest; when the stranger would start to loose consciousness I would place the bottle on his neck to help him stay awake. I would also clap my hands loudly near him to provide stimulus to stay alert. I noticed that he may have been going into shock so I instructed the police officer to grab a tire from the truck and place it under his feet. The promotion and acceptance of the expression of positive and negative feelings was also displayed (Alligood, 2010). The stranger thought that he was going to get fired from his job; he kept repeating a number and also drew it out in the sand next to him. I was very important for the stranger that his boss was called and to let his boss know what was going on. I instructed the police officer to call the number on his cell phone; however, there was no reception and we were not able to get through. I tried to reassure him that the phone call could be made once he was at the hospital, and that his boss would understand why he was unable to make it to work that day. Even though I could not understand everything that he was saying I could tell that this was very important to him and was able to listen. The formation of a humanistic-altruistic system of values was displayed by taking the time to care for this stranger despite my own needs, and wishes for the day (Alligood, 2010). Finally the development of a helping-trusting relationship was displayed by holding this strangers hand. He was alone in the car accident and needed support and the human to human connection that is the seed of Jean Watson’s Human Caring Theory (Alligood, 2010). In conclusion this was a day that I will never forget; I helped a stranger in need, and also got married. I unknowingly displayed Watson’s Human Caring Theory during this experience and I am a better person now because of it. I never found out what happened to the stranger or what kind of injuries he sustained, if he lost his job, or if he had a family that was worried about him. I just live with the blind faith that I somehow was able to make his life better, and that he is thankful for the day that we crossed paths on a lonely desert highway.
References
Alligood, M. (2010). Nursing Theory: Utilization and Application. Maryland, MO: Mosby.
Caruso, E. M., Cisar, N., & Pipe, T. (2008). Creating a Healing Environment: An Innovative Educational Approach for Adopting Jean Watson 's Theory of Human Caring. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 32(2), 126-132.
Chipman, Y. (1991, April). Caring: It 's Meaning and Place in the Practice of Nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 30(4), 171-175.
Pabon, S., & Wisotzkey, S. (2013, August). Hablas Ingles? Language Barriers in Healthcare. Nursing Management, 44(8), 19-21, 24.
Quinn, J. F., Smith, M., Ritenbaugh, C., Swanson, K., & Watson, J. (2003, May/June). Research Guidelines of Assessing the Impact of the Healing Relationship in Clinical Nursing. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 9(3), A65-79.
Watson, J. (n.d.). Wisdom of the World: The Caring Moment. Retrieved from http://watsoncaringscience.org/images/features/library/Caring%20Moment_WatsonTranscript.pdf
I never thought that I would find myself along a desert highway taking care of a man that I never knew. But early in my career this is exactly where I found myself. This is an example of displaying Watson’s Human Caring Theory, and how I took care of a man, in the middle of nowhere, with little more than a bottle of water and a pair of stolen gloves.
My future husband and I were driving home from Tucson, Arizona to Algona, Iowa, but we were stopping by Las Vegas, Nevada to get married along the way. We had spent our entire wedding budget to visit my dying grandmother one last time. This was a sad and happy time in my life and I spent most of the drive reflecting on how much …show more content…
my personal life was changing. I was entering a new life of marriage, and my grandmother was passing away. As we were driving, my husband pointed out smoke in the distance. I didn’t pay much attention to it as controlled burns are common in Arizona along the highway. We kept getting closer and the smoke kept getting bigger, then out of nowhere sirens came up behind us and whipped around faster than I have ever seen a police car drive. About a mile up the road the police car was stopped on the side of the road, and we saw a truck on fire, standing on its end, leaning on the side of a mountain. My husband pulled the car behind the police car. My instincts as a nurse kicked in right away. I grabbed what I had in the car, a bottle of water, and started running. The police officer came out of his car and ran along side of me. I identified myself as a nurse and he allowed me to continue. When we arrived at the scene, there was a Hispanic male, about 25 years old laying on the side of the road. There were some other men there as well that had reported the accident, and pulled the mad to safety. He was cut all over his body and was covered in blood; I reached up toward the police officer and told him to give me his gloves. I quickly assessed the man for injuries; he had an obvious open fracture of his lower leg, and a head injury. I quickly found out during his neurological assessment that the man spoke Spanish. The police officer was no help in this department, he did not speak Spanish, and I only had limited capability. The nearest trauma center was in Las Vegas, about 70 miles away the police officer told me, and it would be at least 20 minutes before the helicopter arrived to transport the patient. The officer told me that a ground ambulance was not going to report to the scene because it would take too long. He asked if I could look after the man while he started to interview the other people on the scene, and assess for other injuries.
A caring moment as described by Jean Watson (n.d.) is “connectedness with another person in a given moment.” In the moments after my assessment is when I connected with the stranger. I attempted to bring up in my memory any of the Spanish that I had learned in high school. I let the man know that help was on the way and that he would be taken care of by me until then. Watson’s Caring Theory started to evolve about 30 years ago when Jean Watson decided that there was more to nursing than just the technical, scientific side, there was also a caring side. Jean Watson contributes the development of her theory to Roger’s Science of Unitary Human Beings. Watson’s Theory encompasses ten carative factors, or caritas, each one having a different aspect of caring (Alligood, 2010). The ten carative factors or caritas are: 1. The deliberate loving and kindness to another person in the context of caring. 2. Being there for your patient and believing that they are an individual. 3. Going beyond ones’ self, and knowing your own beliefs. 4. Developing a trusting nurse-patient relationship. 5. Supporting positive and negative feelings of the one being cared for. 6. Display caring and healing as an art form. 7. Genuinly teaching the one being cared for, and learning from the one being cared for.
8. Creating an environment of healing where all aspects of the patient are addressed mind, body and soul. 9. Tending to the basic needs of the patient, physical, social and spiritual. 10. Caring for self and the life-death dimension, and the one being cared for (Caruso, Cisar, & Pipe, 2008). My interaction with this stranger can be described as a caring moment because I took the time to care.
Almost everybody stayed in their cars and did not bother to see if they could be of assistance. This was my wedding day, in no way did I want to get married dirty and covered in someone else’s blood. I could have also very easily stayed in my car and continued to get ready, but that would have been a disservice to me, the stranger, and to the career of nursing. A caring moment as described by second year nursing students is giving of oneself (Chipman, 1991). I feel that I gave of myself in this situation. I received no compensation and no praise. But this experience was rewarding. I will never forget this man and how I was able to keep him stable until the helicopter …show more content…
arrived. I learned many things about myself in this situation. I learned that I could take charge in an emergent situation, in the presence of authority. I could be resourceful in a strange environment with the limited supplies. The major thing that I learned about myself is that I could put my own needs and wishes aside for a stranger, and care more about them than myself. The Samueli Institute for Information Biology states that the characteristics of healing between healer and healee as “empathy, caring, love, warmth, trust, confidence, credibility, honesty, expectation, courtesy, respect, and communication (Quinn, Smith, Ritenbaugh, Swanson, & Watson, 2003).” It is hard to say how the patient perceived the caring moment. Since verbal communication was difficult, I relied on non-verbal communication. Some of the things that the stranger displayed was reaching, and squeezing my hand. We held hands during most of the interaction. When we would let go for some reason or another he would always reach for my hand to hold again. I feel that this was him displaying trust in me, and a need for comfort and closeness with a person. Communication is imperative in the nursing care moment. It ensures that safe, quality care is being delivered (Pabon & Wisotzkey, 2013). I feel that major barrier in developing our caring relationship was the lack of verbal communication. It was hard to understand his needs, if he was in pain, or what even happened to cause the car accident. It was also difficult for the stranger to understand what I was saying. I have since improved my Spanish speaking abilities, and now know that some of what I was saying to him must have sounded like a two year old speaking to him. This may have instilled fear into the stranger, and lessened my credibility with him. Having someone there that spoke Spanish would have been helpful, even if it was just conversational Spanish and not medical terminology. Jean Watson describes the nursing metaparadigm of human being, nursing, health, and environment in the following terms Personhood, Transpersonal Nursing-Caring-Healing, Health, Illness, Disease, and Environment (Alligood, 2010).
Personhood is the human being seen as a whole, made up of three parts: mind, body, and soul. Each person as a whole is larger than the separate parts put together. Transpersonal Nursing-Caring-Healing is the human to human connection between nurse and patient. The nurses’ goal is to help the patient establish equilibrium of mind, body, and spirit. Health, Illness, Disease is synchronization within the mind, body, and soul along with the synchronization between self and others. Environment is the physical and non-physical surroundings. Encompassing the nurse as “scared space” and promoting health and healing (Alligood,
2010). Some of the carative factors that were displayed in this situation were the instillation of faith and hope (Alligood, 2010). I displayed this by letting the stranger know that he was going to make it to the hospital, and that help was on the way. The systematic use of the scientific problem-solving method for decision making was displayed in several ways (Alligood, 2010). This was displayed by using the limited resources that were available to me, a pair of gloves and a bottle of water. The bottle of water was very cold, just out of the ice chest; when the stranger would start to loose consciousness I would place the bottle on his neck to help him stay awake. I would also clap my hands loudly near him to provide stimulus to stay alert. I noticed that he may have been going into shock so I instructed the police officer to grab a tire from the truck and place it under his feet. The promotion and acceptance of the expression of positive and negative feelings was also displayed (Alligood, 2010). The stranger thought that he was going to get fired from his job; he kept repeating a number and also drew it out in the sand next to him. I was very important for the stranger that his boss was called and to let his boss know what was going on. I instructed the police officer to call the number on his cell phone; however, there was no reception and we were not able to get through. I tried to reassure him that the phone call could be made once he was at the hospital, and that his boss would understand why he was unable to make it to work that day. Even though I could not understand everything that he was saying I could tell that this was very important to him and was able to listen. The formation of a humanistic-altruistic system of values was displayed by taking the time to care for this stranger despite my own needs, and wishes for the day (Alligood, 2010). Finally the development of a helping-trusting relationship was displayed by holding this strangers hand. He was alone in the car accident and needed support and the human to human connection that is the seed of Jean Watson’s Human Caring Theory (Alligood, 2010). In conclusion this was a day that I will never forget; I helped a stranger in need, and also got married. I unknowingly displayed Watson’s Human Caring Theory during this experience and I am a better person now because of it. I never found out what happened to the stranger or what kind of injuries he sustained, if he lost his job, or if he had a family that was worried about him. I just live with the blind faith that I somehow was able to make his life better, and that he is thankful for the day that we crossed paths on a lonely desert highway.
References
Alligood, M. (2010). Nursing Theory: Utilization and Application. Maryland, MO: Mosby.
Caruso, E. M., Cisar, N., & Pipe, T. (2008). Creating a Healing Environment: An Innovative Educational Approach for Adopting Jean Watson 's Theory of Human Caring. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 32(2), 126-132.
Chipman, Y. (1991, April). Caring: It 's Meaning and Place in the Practice of Nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 30(4), 171-175.
Pabon, S., & Wisotzkey, S. (2013, August). Hablas Ingles? Language Barriers in Healthcare. Nursing Management, 44(8), 19-21, 24.
Quinn, J. F., Smith, M., Ritenbaugh, C., Swanson, K., & Watson, J. (2003, May/June). Research Guidelines of Assessing the Impact of the Healing Relationship in Clinical Nursing. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 9(3), A65-79.
Watson, J. (n.d.). Wisdom of the World: The Caring Moment. Retrieved from http://watsoncaringscience.org/images/features/library/Caring%20Moment_WatsonTranscript.pdf