University of Phoenix
Theories and Models of Nursing Practice
403
June 21, 2010
Watson's Theory of Human Caring Jean Watson’s theory of human caring is about nursing and caring being side by side. According to Watson, a person can not completely heal from a disease/condition if only the disease is treated and the person is not(Watson, 1999). Meaning, nursing should focus on providing more care and connecting on a deeper level with their patient’s to promote faster and more effective healing. Because of nursing shortages and increased demand on nursing, there is sometimes little time to none to sit down with a patient and have a heart to heart conversation. Watson’s theory, not only helps incorporate care back into nursing, but emphasizes it as a necessity to better allow the patient to heal(Watson, 1999). Dr. Jean Watson is an American nursing scholar. She earned her undergraduate degree in nursing her master’s degree in psychiatric-mental health nursing, and continued to earn her Ph.D. in educational psychology and counseling from the University of Colorado(Sitzman, 2007). Watson proposed that professional nurses in all areas, have an awareness of the interconnectedness of all beings and share the common, intentional goal of attending to and supporting healing from both scientific and philosophical perspectives(Sitzman, 2007). This common goal is referred to as the caring-healing consciousness(Sitzman, 2007). Watson’s theory took shape around 1970, as a reaction to wide gap she witnessed in respect of science of medicine, which was technology oriented and merely concentrating on diagnosis and cure of disease overlooking the art of healing recognizing humanity as a whole and scope of personal relation between the suffering person and health care providing person("Jean Watson’s theory of Human Care", 2010). The major concepts of Watson’s theory are organized around ten carative factors that later evolved into