Scholarly Dialogue In Jean Watson's 'The Nurse Theorists'

Scholarly Dialogue
Nursing Science Quarterly, 15:3, July 2002

Scholarly Dialogue

Jacqueline Fawcett, Contributing Editor

The Nurse Theorists:
21st-Century Updates—Jean Watson
Jacqueline Fawcett, RN; PhD; FAAN
Professor, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts–Boston
This edited transcript of an interview with Jean Watson presents Watson’s recent thoughts about the current state of the discipline of nursing and the emergence of new perspectives; the contributions of her theory of human caring; and her other work on the advancement of the discipline of nursing, complementary and alternative therapies, nursing research, and nursing education.

Jean Watson had planned to write a book about an integrated
That interview is part of The Nurse Theorists: PorEditor’s Note: Any comments about this dialogue should be addressed to the Editor for possible inclusion in Letters to the Editor.
For other information, contact Jacqueline Fawcett, RN, PhD,
FAAN, P.O. Box 1156, Waldoboro, ME 04572; phone: [phone]; E-mail: [e-mail]
Nursing Science Quarterly, Vol. 15 No. 3, July 2002, 214-219
© 2002 Sage Publications

traits of Excellence series of videotapes and compact disks
(Watson, 1989). This column presents the edited transcript of a telephone interview I conducted with Jean Watson on
March 13, 2000. Dr. Watson contributed additional comments to the transcript during the final editing in February
2002.
On the Discipline of Nursing
JF: What do you think about the current state of the discipline of nursing?
JW: I think the discipline of nursing has to be rethought. We need to clarify what we mean by discipline. Although the disciplinary focus has become more distinct within the last two decades through the maturing of nursing theory, further clarification is required. In terms of the nursing profession being informed by the discipline, I think we have a long way to go. I think, too, that we are still in the
The mature practice of human caring theory is most fully actualized in a nursing model because nursing allows for the continuous caring component that medicine does not have; nurses and nursing working from a human caring philosophy bring a different consciousness and energy of wholeness to any setting, offering a counterpoint to the medicalizing-clinicalizing of human experiences in the conventional institutional industrial models of practice. JF: Your mention of a nursing model leads me to ask if you regard the work that you published in your book,
Postmodern Nursing and Beyond [Watson, 1999], as a conceptual model or further elaboration of the conceptual frame of reference you used to develop the theory of human caring?
JW: I see the book entering into caring at the deep ontological level. Though it embraces and is informed by my earlier work, I see it as being beyond theory. I don’t know what to call it—a framework, a model, a paradigm, or something else. I was trying to consolidate the components of what a mature structure would look like within the context of a caring and healing framework, in contrast to the dominant medicalized, clinicalized version of our discipline and our