Our presentation is on Katharine Kolcaba’s Comfort Theory. Here is a quote from her book that captures the essents of her theory “Cure sometimes, treat often and comfort always. Katharine Kolcaba was born Katharine Arnold Dec. 8th, 1944 in Cleveland Ohio She is married and has 2 daughters and 8 grandchildren In 1965 she received her Diploma in Nursing from St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in Cleveland. In the mid 1980’s Kolcaba wanted to further her nursing career, so she returned to school. In 1987 she earned her RN and Masters of Nursing from Case Western Reserve University.
This theory has been used to help the new generation of nurses to view the human being as a whole with a connection between body, mind, spirit and the environment, understand transpersonal relationship, and create caring moments in nursing practice to improve patient care to obtain positive outcomes. Watson’s theory focus in caring as it must to remain constant. The words “human care” in Watson original book, was later changed to “human caring” or “caring” to describe transpersonal interaction, caring moments, and carative factors, elements of Watson’s theory (Watson, 2012). Watson describes caring as an intentional act from the nurses. In her theory, Watson emphasis that the nurse has
Jean Watson is an American nurse theorist and nurse professor who is mostly known for her Theory of Human Caring. The main concept of the theory is caring for the purpose of healing, dignity, respecting the wholeness of humanity. Jean Watson refers to human being as valued person to be cared, respected, nurtured, understood and assisted. Within caring theory, the primary nursing consideration is the creation of caring, the relationship with the patient. Watson’s caring philosophy is used to guide transformative models of caring and healing practices for nurses, different healthcare professionals, caregivers and patients worldwide.
Dr. Jean Watson earned her degrees as an undergraduate and a graduate from 1964 to 1973. She specializes in nursing and psychiatric-mental health nursing and now has her PhD in educational psychology and counseling. Watson is a published author and gained many awards and honors such as the international Kellogg Fellowship in Australia and a Fulbright Research Award in Sweden. (http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/Watson.html) She created two theories called “The philosophy and science of caring” and “Nursing: human science and human care” that was published in 1978 and 1988. Jean Watson is someone who cares for patients and believes that they should be treated with respect.
According to Watson (2001), the major elements of her theory are (a) the carative factors, (b) the transpersonal caring relationship, and (c) the caring occasion/caring moment. Watson reviewed the carative factors as a guide to the core of nursing. She used the term carative to relate to conventional medicine’s curative
The nurse can either help or interfere with the patient’s healing process, depending on how this nurse-patient relationship is developed and followed through. Watson’s theory helps nurses examine themselves and their patients on a holistic level - mentally, physically, and spiritually. “In Watson’s theory, nursing is centered around helping the patient achieve a higher degree of harmony within mind, body, and soul, and this harmony is achieved through caring transactions involving a transpersonal caring relationship” (Suliman, Welmann, Omer, and Thomas, 2009, p 293). This
Personhood is based on the concept of humans as embodied spirits (Jesse, 2010), according to Watson humans can coexist with the past, present, and the future by emphasizing the spiritual dimension of life (Jesse, 2010). Nursing is centered on helping the patient achieve a higher degree of harmony with mind, body, and soul and is achieved through caring actions involving a transpersonal caring relationship (Suliman, Wellman, Omer, Thomas, 2009). Transpersonal caring is the proposed approach to achieve a connection in which the nurse and patient change together (Alligood, 2010). Watson’s theory states that caring transcends the technical aspect of care and “honors the person as an embodied spirit” (Jesse, 2010, p.119). Watson does not deny the technical importance of nursing but embraces the mind, consciousness, treating the whole person.
Watson's Theory of Human Caring Deborah Bahador NUR/403 August 30,2010 Kimberly Frommel Watson's Theory of Human Caring Dr. Jean Watson developed a theory of human caring that I believe is essential to nursing. Caring is at the core of nursing and if nurses don’t care for our patients than they shouldn’t be nurses at all. With this our jobs become a gratifying profession as opposed to an ordinary job. According to Cara, (1991), “Upholding Watson’s caring theory not only allows the nurse to practice the art of caring, to provide compassion to ease patients’ and families’ suffering, and to promote their healing and dignity, but it can also contribute to expand the nurse’s own actualization (p. 51) According to Bailey, (2009), “Watson’s theory of human care proposes that caring might transform health care and preserve human dignity in the health care system (p. 19). If nurses are applying Watson’s theory to their practice, the result should be a continual transformation in health care.
The essence of Watson’s theory is caring for the purpose of promoting healing, preserving dignity, and respecting the wholeness and interconnectedness of humanity (George, 2011). The Theory of Human Caring has three major conceptual elements; Carative Factors, Transpersonal Caring Relationships and Caring Moment/Caring Occasion. Developed in 1979, Watson views the carative factors as a guide for the core of nursing. The carative factors honor the human dimension of nursing’s work and the inner life world and subjective experiences of the people we serve. The transpersonal caring
In an exquisite example of the evolution of nursing when theory intersects with evidenced based practice, Watson introduced clinical caritas, which replaced the carative factors, (Watson, 2001). The change in her language translated into more than mere semantics. The transformation was the fruit born from the tree of past predecessors continued nurturing environment that produced an action of caring which was rooted deep in the philosophy that we are linked deeply to those we care for. “Transpersonal caring seeks to connect with and embrace the spirit or soul of the other through the processes of caring and healing, and being in authentic relationship, in the moment,” (Watson, 2007). The philosophy of transpersonal goes beyond the