Preview

Caring Is Viewed as the Essence of Nursing

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1719 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Caring Is Viewed as the Essence of Nursing
Caring is viewed as the essence of nursing, discuss...
Introduction
Lenninger (1984) described caring as the “essence of nursing”. Over the years many nursing theorists and researchers have examined the concept of caring and written extensively on the importance of caring in nursing. Going back to the foundation of modern nursing Nightingale (1859) wrote that nursing’s most important work is caring. Despite the wealth of ground covered in these works the term “care”, is rarely defined as a theoretical concept in its own right and is often used interchangeably with the term nursing (Gaut, 1983). In this article the author will explore the existing theoretical perspectives on caring. The author will attempt to show how nursing and caring are inherently linked and the important role that caring plays in job satisfaction for nurses as well as client satisfaction with the service provided. The article will also try to demonstrate the distinction between lay-caring and professional caring.
Perspectives on caring
Cognitive
Lenninger (1981) defines care/caring as those assistive, supportive, or facilitative acts toward another individual with evident needs to improve their condition. This view of caring as an act of doing something to help a person is shared by other authors too. Caring is considered a series of helping activities (McFarlane, 1976). This is in-line with Orem’s (1985) theory of self care, which identifies five methods of giving assistance to an individual including acting for or doing for another, guiding another, supporting another, providing an environment that promotes personal development and teaching another.
Emotional
Alternatively, caring is viewed as a therapeutic interpersonal process that can only be effectively practised interpersonally (Watson, 1979). Benner (1984) agrees and identifies an instrumental and expressive role in nursing for the concept of caring. Dunlop (1986) warns not to define caring as a finite set of behaviours as to do so



References: Banathy B.H. (1996) Designing Social Systems In A Changing World, New York, Plenum Press. Benner P. (1984) From Novice To Expert: Excellence And Power In Clinical Nursing Practice, Reading, Massachusetts, Addison-Wesley. Bruce T., Bowman J. and Brown S. (1998) Factors that influence patient satisfaction in the emergency department, Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 13(2), 31-37. Dunlop M.J. (1986) Is a science of caring possible? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 11, 661-670. Duke S. & Copp G. (1992) Hidden nursing, Nursing Times, 88(17), 40-42. Fry S.T. (1988) The ethic of caring: can it survive in nursing? Nursing Outlook, 36(1), 48. Gadow S.A. (1985) Nurse and patient: the caring relationship, Caring Curing Coping, (Bishop A.H. & Schudder J.R. eds), Alabama, The University of Alabama Press, 31-43. Gaut D. (1983) Development of a theoretically adequate description of caring,Western Journal of Nursing Research, 5(4), 313-324. Henderson V.A. (1980) Preserving the essence of nursing in a technological age, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 5, 245-260. Hirshfield M. (1983) Home care versus institutionalisation: family care-giving and senile brain disease, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 20, 23-32. Judkins S.K. & Eldridge C. (2001) Lets put caring back into healthcare, Journal of Nursing Administration, 31(11), 509-511. Kitson A.L. 1987 A comparative analysis of lay-caring and professional (nursing) caring relationships, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 24 (2), 155-165. Kurtz R.J. & Wang J. (1991) The caring ethic: more than kindness, the core of nursing science, Nursing Forum, 26(1), 4-8. Lenninger M. (1981) The phenomenon of caring: importance, research questions and theoretical considerations, Caring, An Essential Human Need, (Lenninger M. ed) Wayne State University Press, Detroit 3-15. Lenninger M. (1984) The essence of nursing and health, Thoroughfare, NJ Slack. McFarlane J.K. (1976) A charter for caring, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 1, 187-196. Nettina S.M. (2000) The Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice, Philadelphia, Lippincott. Nightingale F. (1859) Notes on Nursing, New York, Dover. Orem D.E. (1985) Nursing: Concepts of Practise 3rd ed, New York, McGraw-Hill. Paulson D.S Remen N. (1980) The Human Patient, New York, Anchor Press. Watson J. (1979) Theory and Practice of Nursing: An Integrated Approach to Caring Practice ,(Basford L. & Slevin O. eds.) 50 New York, Nelson Thornes.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Buldin, S., 2005. Nursing as Caring Theory: Living Caring in Practice. Retrieved march 30, 2009…

    • 1943 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jean Watson

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Jean Watsons Theory of Caring has become essential in nursing. Caring is at the core of nursing and is vital in providing positive patient outcomes. Watson’s theory is based upon human caring relationships and experiences in human life. She acknowledges a caring relationship and caring environment preserve human dignity, wholeness, and integrity and to restore the person’s harmony it is the nurse’s responsibility to assist an individual to establish meaning in illness and suffering (Cara, 2008). Nurses have a responsibility to evaluate the patient’s physical, mental, and emotional well- being.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Caring In Nursing

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Caring has been a primal concept and the heart of nursing since before it became recognized as a profession. The word “nursing” itself means to nurture or care (Smith, Turkel & Wolf, 2013) and so in my opinion, it is not possible to respond to the calls of nursing without caring at its forefront. This unit’s readings have not changed by views, but rather enhanced them. I have learned about the historical debate that has taken place with those who oppose caring as being part of the unique perspective of nursing. For example, Mary Jane Smith argues that caring is present in many professions, not only in nursing, and so it is not unique to nursing (Smith et al., 2013). While it is true that caring is used in all types of professions and ultimately in all human relations, nursing is the only discipline that is developing knowledge about how caring “facilitates health, healing and the quality of life” (Smith et al., 2013).…

    • 487 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Philosophy of Nursing

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A nurse has to be able to integrate multiple aspects of care in order to build a healthy atmosphere fit for their patients. In order to do this, a nurse must have a strong understanding of their personal philosophy of nursing will all metaparadigm components of person, environment, health and nursing. Without one of these, I believe a nurse will not be able to give their very best to their patient.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Nursing is a science that has many theories to support the beliefs and clinical practice of the profession. One core concept prevalent in many nursing theories is caring. Theorist Jean Watson and Madeleine Leininger are both nursing theorists who developed theories around caring and nursing. The subject of discussion in this paper is the comparison and analysis of the concept definitions of Jean Watson’s Theory of Philosophy and Science of Caring and Madeleine Leininger’s Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality of nursing. Also included is an in-depth discussion of Jean Watson’s theory and how the theory can be applied to nursing practice.…

    • 1799 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Watson, J. (1999). Nursing: Human science and human care, a theory of nursing. Sunbury, MA: NLN Press, Jones and Bartlett…

    • 2041 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The caring theorist, Jean Watson, first developed her theory and published the philosophy and science of caring in 1979 (Current Nursing, 2011). She describes nursing as a process of caring not curing, and that it is effectively practiced and demonstrated interpersonally only. Her theory also “suggests that caring is a different way of being human, present, attentive, conscious, and intentional” (Wafika, Welmann, Omer, & Thomas, December 2009, p. 293). Watson believed that “caring is central to nursing and the unifying focus for [our] practice (Blais, Hayes, Kozier, & Erb, 2006, p. 107). She developed ten carative factors, the first three being philosophically based, around the main concepts of person, health, environment, and nursing.…

    • 1603 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Watson's Theory

    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Theories contain concepts, definitions, models, propositions, and are being based on assumptions (Nursing Theories, 2010). The nursing profession uses nursing theories as the framework and foundation for practice. Many people find nursing theories to be meaningless and of no use to the profession, as this student did before she knew what the history and meaning behind nursing theories. Nursing theories aid nurses by improving patient care and enhancing communication between members (Nursing Theories). Various nursing theorists have theories available for nursing practice. This paper will focus on Watson’s Theory of Human Caring, including the history and concepts of the theory.…

    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Jean Watson

    • 1481 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Clarke, P., Watson, J., & Brewer, B. (2009). From theory to practice: Caring science according to Watson and Brewer. Nursing Science Quarterly, 22(4). doi: 10.1177/0894318409344769…

    • 1481 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Caring and nursing are deeply interwoven. Caring in the nursing profession can be expressed in many forms such as when a nurse performs a careful assessment, provides education to patients and their families, answers their questions or is just simply provides a therapeutic presence. Jean Watson is a well-known nursing scholar who has developed her own theory on caring and its definition and role in the nursing profession. The Human Caring Theory puts the profession of nursing in a different light and views it as a nontraditional science because it includes human compassion. Watson states when human caring…

    • 2014 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The caring moment is a critical decision in another person life, as well as your life. It is an act of humanity. In essence, there is more to giving physical treatment; your presence and support shows the connectivity with another person at every given moment. It is a shared journey in this life, we should always take care of our neighbors, and maybe this can be the main agenda why we live. Medical personnel today try their best, in depths of their day 's activity connecting with their patients even if it 's for a short moment (Dossey & Keegan 2013). This touches more…

    • 2264 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cohen, J. (1991). Two portraits of caring: a comparison of theorists, Leininger and Watson. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 16(8), 899-909. Retrieved from CINAHL Plus with Full Text.…

    • 1918 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Watson, J. (1999). Nursing: Human science and human care, a theory of nursing. Sunbury, MA: NLN Press, Jones and Bartlett.…

    • 1615 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    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 uses the term “carative” instead of the medical terminology “curative” to highlight the idea that her nursing theory revolves around the science of caring.…

    • 1771 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jean Watson

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Being educated by Watson’s caring theory allows us to return to our deep professional values. It represents the model of an ideal nurse. Caring supports our professional individuality within a setting where humanistic values are always tested. Sustaining these caring values in our daily practice helps excel the nurse from a position where nursing is observed as “just a job”, to that of a rewarding and satisfying profession. It not only lets the nurse practice the art of caring, to provide sympathy to ease patient’s and families’ grief and sorrow, and to promote their healing but it can also donate to increase the nurse’s own actualization (Philosophy of Nursing, 2011). Watson is one of the few nursing theorists who also consider the caregiver. Supporting these caring values is not only vital to our own health as nurses but also contributes to finding meaning in our work.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics