About Jean Watson
Jean Watson was born at the time and generation of a baby boomer in the 1940s in a town within West Virginia in the. Jean was married to Douglas in 1961 and moved to the home of her husband in Colorado State where they bore two daughters between 1963 and 1967. She was raised up in a small town known as Welch. Jean grew up in the environment of an extended family and was the youngest of the eight children in her family. She received her high school education in West Virginia before moving on to the school of nursing at Lewis Gale in Virginia. She later graduated from the nursing school in 1961. Jean Watson is a professor of nursing and a nurse theorist from America who is popularly known in relation to her human caring theory. Jean has authored several texts on nursing, the science of caring and philosophy among others. Most of the research work done by Jean has been incorporated into nursing education and nursing care in various institutions and healthcare facilities around the world. Jean Watson is the founder of the Human Caring Center based in Colorado. She has also been the president and leader of the Nursing National League ( Sitzman and Watson, 2014) .
Additionally, Jean is a founding member of International Caritas Consortium and Human Caring International Association. She holds an undergraduate degree in nursing, a graduate degree in psychiatric and mental health nursing and a doctorate degree in counseling and educational psychology. Jean has received several honors and awards in recognition and appreciation of her efforts towards developing and maintaining nursing and health care practices that are based on good working relationships. Some of the awards she received include that of the Fetzer Institute Norman Cousins, a Fulbright Research Award from Sweden, and Hildebrand Center for Compassion award in medicine from Notre Dame University among others. Academic programs and clinical nursing training around the globe have continued to use some of the works published by Jean Watson especially those on theory and philosophy of human caring as well as the science and art of human caring and nursing. The caring philosophy by Watson is widely used in offering guidance to transformative models when it comes to healing and caring practices performed to patients by nurses in diverse health care settings around the world (Sitzman and Watson, 2014) .
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As an author and a co-author of more than thirty books on nursing and caring, some of her latest works range from international research studies and empirical evaluations on caring to present postmodern healing and caring philosophies. Some of the changes that occur in her life include her involvement in an accident, which left her without her left eye in 1997 and losing her husband in 1998. Jean Watson came up with one of the most modern grand theories in nursing. In this regard, her descriptive caring theory incorporates several dimensions into the practice of nursing such as spirituality. Moreover, she makes two major contributions in relation to influencing her advanced as broad nursing theory about caring science. Jean Watson’s theory places a lot of emphases and focuses on the development of additional knowledge through human interaction and behavior as well as the utilization of holistic techniques of nursing into the practice of healthcare provision (Masters, 2015).
Major (or grand) Nursing Theory Associated with Jean Watson
The major nursing theory associated with Jean Watson is the human caring theory. The center and focus of this theory are based on ten processes of Caritas. The processes involved are critical since they offer the relevant guidance to the incorporation of care practices into the personal and professional life of an individual. Some of these processes include embracing of values that are considered altruistic together with exercising kindness and love to others. Instilling faith, honor, and hope in others is another important process. In this regard, the content of the major nursing theory involves the meta-paradigm aspects of health, environment, nursing and person. Jean considers the person aspect as one that comprises the body, the mind and the spirit and she recognizes the vital role played by the cooperation of body, mind, and spirit.
According to Jean, health could be regarded as an experience whose subjective nature is defined and understood by a person. Health represents a correspondence between body, spirit, and mind and is affected by the manner in which an individual perceives and experiences a given situation. Nursing entails the science and art in the human caring theory where the essence of nursing is giving care. The role played by the nurse is to help a patient to understand the meaning and find comfort in suffering and illness. According to this theory, Jean Watson describes the environment as something that incorporates the physical space where the caring exercise takes place. Further, the coming together of the patient and the nurse indicates the existence of a human interaction in the environment described in this case. The environment should be able to offer to heal or assist with the healing process in physical and non-physical ways by paying attention to comfort, peace, and dignity. Furthermore, the context of this grand nursing theory by Watson critically considers the occurrence of the act of caring as well as the act of nursing. This takes place through the behaviors displayed by patients and nurses as well as the nature of the relationship that exists between them. The context of the human caring theory by Watson presents a considerable level of congruency with the theorist philosophy whose focus is the patient-nurse relationship and the holistic care as a means of achieving positive patient results. The theory process involves techniques adopted by nurses to offer care to patients and the environment in which manipulation of the desirable health results takes place ( Masters, 2015).
The main processes utilized in this theory involve finding a solution to problems through collaborative means involving patients, nurses and another member of staff. The implementation of effective caregiving can be achieved through the existence of good working relationships and synthesis within the healthcare facility. With regard to relational propositions of the grand nursing theory by Watson, the environment, nursing and health are all interrelated. A person is considered to operate holistically and is subject to influence through the care services provided by a nurse acting within a physical and a non-physical environment. The process of healing is largely influenced by the kind of relationship that exists between the nurse and the patient. As already stated, the focus of nursing practice is to assist patients in attaining a satisfactory state of harmony within their bodies, souls, and minds. Alternatively, the achievement of such levels could be realized by carrying out caring transactions, which incorporates caring interpersonal relationships. It is believed that the positive results in patients are highly likely to happen with the intention of enhancing relationships between the nurse and the patient. Some of the assumptions associated with the Watson’s grand theory of human care include the clear identification of the significance of the patient-nurse relationships and caregiving operations as optimum results or outcomes. In addition, Watson describes the caring theory as the focus of nursing operations at the level of disciplinary and may be regarded as a moral or philosophical foundation when it comes to professional nursing (Sitzman and Watson, 2014) .
Impacts of Evidence-Based Practice and Nursing Theory on Professional Nursing Practice
The practice of professional nursing is impacted by the relationship between the nursing theory and the evidence-based practice through several ways. The theorist Jean Watson explains one of such ways through the human caring theory or model. In this regard, the relationship is built on an ethical and moral foundation. In reference to the caring model by Jean Watson and the associated nursing practice, the present state of affairs in the practice of nursing profession has been attained due to a gradual implementation of the theoretical aspect of both art and science of nursing. The application of the outcomes obtained in research studies in the day-to-day operation of the nursing profession ensures that the nurses are always guided by theoretical principles with proven attributes towards the appropriate and quality provision of care to patients. The core concepts of the nursing as expounded by Watson place a lot of emphasis on transpersonal caring relationships to ensure that human dignity is enhanced while attending to patients ( Lyon, 2012).
It is important to indicate that a Watson proposes a strong relationship between the theoretical and practical aspects of nursing. This proposal requires further development to assist in improving service delivery of services by nurses to patients in various health facilities. The whole concept of ensuring the existence of a relationship between nursing and evidence-based practice in the nursing profession today is to enhance the capability and functionality of the nursing practitioners. The ability of professionals in the nursing profession to think critically will be considerably enhanced in the future following the harmonization of the theoretical and evidence-based knowledge and experiences. This relationship is expected to play a vital role in allowing for the introduction and maintenance of a more holistic provision of human care in the nursing profession and the associated working environment. Most of the critical skills necessary for the effective delivery of nursing care are founded on a deeper and clearer understanding of the theoretical concepts of the nursing profession. Therefore, the nursing professionals are in a better position to critically examine and analyze the evidence and outcomes of various research studies to determine the most appropriate techniques and approaches towards the provision of nursing care (Lyon, 2012) .
According to Jean Watson, the future of nursing will be largely determined and influenced by the development of nursing to become a distinct caring and healing profession. However, this profession faces the challenge of standing and developing within its paradigm while ensuring the manifestation of theoretical understanding through practice based on evidence. Projection into the future of the nursing professional practice indicates that nurses and other health practitioners involved in human care provision will be expected to operate within the frameworks provided by the understanding of nursing theory. Lack of measures to improve the relationship between nursing theory and evidence-based nursing profession in future could adversely have adverse effects on the provision of a holistic care to patients as emphasized by the theory of human caring. The aspect of evidence-based practice in the nursing profession is critical in the sense that it provides an appropriate opportunity and mechanisms for the identification of clinical challenges as well as determining the corresponding effective intervention. Such practices enable practitioners in the nursing profession are able to carry out meaningful research through a critical evaluation of the theories and evidence that inform their decisions today and in the future. Thus, the nursing profession needs to address a crossroad of possibilities, paradigms as well as different views as it embraces the evolution of technology presently and in future. (Lyon, 2012 ; Masters, 2015).
References
Lyon, J. (2012). Watson’s Human Caring Theory . Retrieved from
https://jalyon.wordpress.com/scholarly-works/watsons-human-caring-theory/
Masters, K. (2015). Role development in professional nursing practice . Toronto: Jones and Bartlett. https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=ftkBCwAAQBAJ&sitesec=buy&source=gbs_vpt_read
Sitzman, K., & Watson, J. (2013). Caring science, mindful practice: Implementing Watson's
Human caring theory . Springer Publishing Company https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=2QM4AAAAQBAJ&dq=Sitzman,+K.,+%26+Watson,+J.+(2013).+Caring+science,+mindful+practice:+Implementing+Watson%27s+Human+caring+theory.+Springer+Publishing+Company&source=gbs_navlinks_s
