TFN M2

• Jean Watson's Philosophy & Theory of Transpersonal Caring

  Nursing is the human science of persons and human health – illness experiences that are mediated by professional, personal, scientific, aesthetic, and ethical human care transactions
• Florence Nightingale


  Daughter of William Nightingale of Embley Park, Hampshire and was born in Italy, on the 12th day of May, 1820
• The Crimean War broke out between Russia and Turkey


  March 1853
• Nightingale recognized that overcrowding, filth, and poor ventilation all contributed to the illness of the soldiers
• At night, she carried a lamp through the corridors, stopping to help the suffering of the wounded soldiers, for this, she was nicknamed, "The Lady with the Lamp"
• Nightingale's Post-War Contributions

  1. Returned to England as a national heroine in 1856

  2. Published two books: Notes on Hospital (1859) and Notes on Nursing (1859)

  3. Raised enough funds and used this to establish the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses at St. Thomas Hospital

  4. Nightingale's work greatly influenced John Stuart Mill's book on women's rights
• Environment


  The external conditions and influences affecting the life and development of an organism and capable of preventing, suppressing, or contributing to disease, accidents, or deaths
• Components of Environment

  • Proper Ventilation
  • Adequate Light
  • Cleanliness
  • Warmth
  • Quiet
  • Diet
  • Management
• Person


  The patient himself. Patients are the recipient of our care. A passive patient is a patient who depends wholly on the nurse for tasks and control of his environment. The nurse is totally in control of the patient and his environment.
• Nursing

  Nightingale's view of nursing was comparable to that of motherly instincts. She believed that every woman would be a nurse because nursing is having the responsibility for someone else's health – a characteristic shared by women, especially mothers.
• Environment


  Those elements external to and which affect the health of the sick and healthy person, including everything from the patient's food and flowers to the patient's verbal and nonverbal interactions.
• Health


  Being well. Health is also living up to one's potential to the fullest extent. Disease and illness are viewed as reparative processes that are instituted by Mother Nature herself when the person did not attend to his personal health concerns.
• Nightingale's Contributions to Nursing

  1. Established the St. Thomas Hospital and King's College Hospital in London, which was able to provide a framework for the establishment of nursing training schools through a universal template that contains principles of nursing training

  2. Advocated the separation of nursing training from the hospital to a more appropriate learning environment in the school or university setting

  3. Considered the mother of nursing research because of her interest in the scientific methods of inquiry and statistics

  4. Was able to gather and analyze data efficiently and resourcefully

  5. Was the first to use polar diagrams in presenting study data
• The concepts of Nightingale's theory still serve as a basis for current research. In the 1990s, research studies that tested and expanded nursing theory were numerous.
• Jean Watson


  • Born and grew up in a small town of Welch West Virginia; youngest of the eight children
  • Began developing her theory while she was assistant dean of the undergraduate program at University of Colorado
  • In 1978-1981, she served as coordinator and director of the PhD program
  • Worked from 11 curative factors to formulate her 10 carative factors
  • Modified 10 factors slightly over time and developed the caritas processes, which have a spiritual dimension and use a more fluid and evolutionary language
  • Authored 11 books which reflect the evolution of her theory of caring
• Transpersonal Caring Relationship


  Foundational of her theory; it is a specific human-to-human relationship in which the nurse affects and is affected by the person of the patient
• Transpersonal Caring Relationship


  A special kind of human care relationship that depends on the nurse's moral commitment, caring consciousness, and potential to heal
• Transpersonal Caring Relationship


  • A union with another person with high regard for the whole person and their being in the world
  • Involves "Caritas" - cherishing and giving special loving attention
• Carative Factors


  Concepts introduced by Watson, later evolved into Clinical Caritas Processes
• 10 Carative Factors


  • Humanistic-altruistic system of value
  • Faith-hope
  • Sensitivity to self and others
  • Helping-trusting, human care relationship
  • Expressing positive and negative feelings
  • Creative problem-solving caring process
  • Transpersonal teaching-learning
  • Supportive, protective, and/or corrective mental, physical, societal, and spiritual environment
  • Human needs assistance
  • Existential-phenomenological-spiritual forces
• Humanistic-altruistic system of value: Practice of loving kindness and equanimity (self-control/composure) within context of caring consciousness.
• Transpersonal


  Going beyond one's own ego and the here and now, to reach deeper spiritual connections in promoting the patient's comfort and healing
• Caring Occasion


  The moment (focal point in space and time) when the nurse and another person come together in such a way that an occasion for human caring is created
• The theory acknowledges the unity of the person's mind-body-spirit
• The mind is the point of access to the body and the spirit
• Watson ascertains that the care of the soul remains the most powerful aspect of the art of caring in nursing
• Nursing


  The human science of persons and human health – illness experiences that are mediated by professional, personal, scientific, aesthetic, and ethical human care transactions
• Person


  Personhood (human being) - a unity of mind/body/spirit/nature, unitary transformative paradigm-holographic thinking, connectedness of all, mind, body, soul
• Health


  Illness is not necessarily disease; it is a subjective turmoil or disharmony within the spheres of the person, for example, in the mind, body, and soul, either consciously or unconsciously
• Environment


  Society - provides the values that determine how one should behave and what goals one should strive toward. Caring (and nursing) has existed in every society and is transmitted by the culture of the profession as a unique way of coping with its environment
• Application to Nursing

  • Nursing Practice (Administration & Leadership): Calls for administrative practices and embrace caring, even in a health care environment of increased acuity levels of hospitalized individuals, short hospital stays, increasing complexity of technology, and rising expectations in the task of nursing
  • Nursing Education: Watson's writings focus on educating graduate nursing students and providing them with ontological, ethical, and epistemological bases for their practice, along with research directions. Watson's caring framework has been taught in numerous baccalaureate nursing curricula
  • Nursing Research: Watson's theory to reduce distress experienced by infertile women. Her theory and the application of theory of clinical practice hospital organizations have been their major weakness of research. Nelson and Watson report on studies carried out in seven countries
• • Faith-hope: Being authentically present, and enabling and sustaining the deep belief system and subjective life world of self and the one-being-cared-for
• • Sensitivity to self and others: Cultivation of one's own spiritual practices and transpersonal self, going beyond ego self
• • Helping-trusting, human care relationship: Developing and sustaining a helping-trusting, authentic caring relationship
• • Expressing positive and negative feelings: Being present to, and supportive of, the expression of positive and negative feelings as a connection with a deeper spirit of self and the one-being-cared-for
• Creative problem-solving caring process: Creative use of self and all ways of knowing as part of the caring process to engage in artistry of caring-healing practices
• • Transpersonal teaching-learning: Engaging in genuine teaching-learning experience that attends to unity of being and meaning, attempting to stay within other's frames of reference
• • Human needs assistance: 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, tending to both the embodied spirit and evolving spiritual emergence
• • Existential-phenomenological-spiritual force: 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