A nursing experience of applying Watson's caring theory to a primary caregiver in an ICU

The authors present a case study of a nursing experience applying Watson's caring theory to a critical patient's primary caregiver in the intensive care unit. Data were collected by observation, discussion, and telephone interviews between 20th April and 10th May 2004. Major nursing problems were: (1) anxiety, (2) anticipatory grieving, and (3) poor social support system. The authors describe the details of the primary intervention effort, using Watson's caring theory in accordance with the spirit of nursing as conducted by the Mutual Confidence Foundation, providing individual protective nursing, reducing the caregiver's anxiety, facilitating constructive anticipatory grieving, and providing appropriate social resources. This relieved the caregiver's stress caused by physical, mental, emotional and social factors.     

Developing a practice model for Watson's theory of caring

Watson's theory of human caring focuses on holistic care and the authentic relationship between caregivers and patients. The purpose of this column is to describe Watson's theory by using a practice model. This practice model can be used by nurse educators to teach staff nurses and students.     

An experience nursing an ambulatory pediatric surgery patient and his mother: the practice of caring

A seven-year old child was scheduled for excision of hemangioma under local anesthesia. Utilizing the concept of caring, we provided pre- and intra-operative support to both the patient and his mother. Before the operation, we effectively established the self-confidence of the patient by providing sufficient disease-related information and encouragement in a child-oriented approach, in order to enable the patient to overcome fear and pain. This caring approach proved effective during the operation since the patient was fully aware of each surgical step and the levels of pain to be experienced. The mother was also involved throughout the process. She was therefore not only emotionally pacified, but also actively involved in the psychosocial support process. Traditionally, almost all surgical procedures in pediatric patients have been performed under general anesthesia. This report indicates that under appropriate care some of the less invasive surgical procedures in school-age children can be carried out under local anesthesia to avoid the risks involved in general anesthesia.     

The movement between caring and caring yourself in ICU: an analyses through Watson's Transpersonal Caring Theory

This research has qualitative approach and tries to understand the way caregivers care themselves and the other in ICU, according to the theory of Transpersonal of Watson. The study took place at the Hospital das Clínicas in Porto Alegre, 2001, with caregivers from the ICU for Adults. From the theme Self emerged the categories The Caregiver Revealing Self and Experiencing the Ethic-Moral Dilemma;from the theme The Other, the category Experiencing the Web of Relationships; from the theme The Care In ICU, the categories Caring as an Amorous Action, Experiencing Situations of Non-Care and Expressing the Possible Dream; from the theme Questions Of Life, the categories Searching Meanings and Evoking the Spiritual Dimension.     

An analysis and evaluation of Watson's theory of human care

Despite a high priority placed on theory-testing in nursing, there continues to be minimal research undertaken which adequately tests nursing theories A study was planned to contribute to theory-testing in nursing by testing an aspect of Watson's (1988) theory of human care Watson essentially believes that nursing is an intersubjective human process and places a high value on the caring relationship between the nurse and the recipient of care Before proceeding with the intended study, the following analysis and evaluation of Watson's theory presented here was undertaken, with guidance from a tool developed by Fawcett & Downs (1992) In this tool, the analysis identifies the concepts and propositions that make up the theory and the evaluation includes the criteria of significance, internal consistency, parsimony, testability and empirical adequacy of the theory being tested Overall, this analysis and evaluation found two areas of Watson's work which were in need of further development     

An experience providing terminal care based on Watson's theory to a cancer patient who lived alone

This article presents the case of a terminal stage cancer patient who lived alone and had a detached relationship with his family, and negative behaviors such as: depression, passivity, silence, refusal of treatment, and inability to trust others because of lack of family care during hospitalization. We cared for the patient with direct personal nursing care, using skillful physical evaluation, conversation and close observation from June 11, 2004, to July 11, 2004. Using Watson's theory, we successfully instilled trust in the patient and developed a positive relationship with him. We took care of his needs in a timely manner, used physical care to make him feel comfortable, showed concern about what he was really feeling, provided him with medical information, and helped him to manage his physiological, psychological, social, and spiritual problems. We enabled the patient to face his disease, in the hope that he would experience the end of his life peacefully under our warm and professional nursing care.     

Teaching holistic child health promotion using Watson's theory of human science and human care

"Preservation and advancement of human care is a critical issue for nursing today in our increasingly depersonalized society. The mandate for nursing within science as well as within society is a demand for cherishing of the wholeness of human personality" (Watson, 1999, p. 29). Children today are being faced with having to deal with this societal "depersonalization." How children grow up to perceive themselves and others is crucial in developing future adults who genuinely care about themselves and humankind in its totality. Watson's (1999) human science and human care theory was incorporated into teaching health promotion to a group of preadolescent children.     

Watson's philosophy, science, and theory of human caring as a conceptual framework for guiding community health nursing practice

Criticisms of existing nursing theories in relation to community health nursing practice are that they focus on individuals and have been developed primarily for practice within the context of infirmity and disease, making them inadequate to guide community health nursing practice. Despite being developed for individuals, Watson's theory is proposed as a nursing framework that is philosophically congruent with contemporary global approaches to community health and health promotion. An overview of her theory identifies the centrality of caring, holism, and ecology in the theory as it has evolved over the past 20 years. Concepts developed for individual-nurse interactions are extrapolated to the community in a discussion of the suitability of the theory to guide community health nursing practice. A community assessment tool based on Watson's theory is provided.     

An experience of providing emergency care on the basis of Watson's theory to a toddler suffering from minor burns

This article explores the application of Watson's Caring Theory to a child suffering from minor burns injury and his mother. After the nursing process, their physical and social-psychological needs were met. A trauma accident always affects the child and the caregiver, especially the mother. Burn injury brings physical injury, pain, and loss of control to the child and makes the mother feel very guilty and lose her confidence in her ability to take care of the child. After the caring behaviors had been practiced, relationships of mutual trust were developed between the child, his mother and the primary nurse. In the child, the medical treatments were accomplished, the pain was relieved, and he resumed his communication mode. Finally, abilities to deal with burn injury were also built between the child and his mother. This experience could serve as a reference in the emergency nursing of trauma children. The focus of emergency care is not only applying scientific knowledge in the physical area, but also using the caring behaviors to meet the individual's social-psychological needs.     

The experience of caring for an alcoholic woman in the family

This study aims at investigating the care practices developed by the family of an alcoholic woman and understanding her perception of the care she is receiving. It is a case study, developed using a qualitative approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, performed in 2008 in a middle-class family home in a town in southern Brazil. The data were later submitted to analysis. The results show that the care provided by the family is centered on the needs for food, hygiene, sleep, rest and the transporting of the woman to specialized detoxification services, and that the woman views these actions as a form of control and punishment due to her addiction. We highlight the way the family cares for the woman and how this changed as her alcoholism evolved.     

Assessment scale for caregiver experience with dementia. Development of an instrument in Japan

A great deal of research has been conducted concerning the burden on care-givers of elderly patients with dementia, but only a small number of qualitative studies discuss actual ways individuals with dementia are being cared for and describe the caregiving experience. Scales for assessing caregiver experience have not yet been developed. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument on the basis of the caregiver experience model developed by Kobayashi [Suwa], Masaki, and Noguchi (1993) in Japan. Psychometric evaluations of the scale were conducted. A sample of 116 caregivers were asked to fill out a questionnaire on a self-rating 5-point scale measuring their sense of caregiving burden, and 90 responses were obtained. The data measured with this original scale was subjected to factor analysis and an assessment scale was developed. As a result, the Assessment Scale for Caregiver Experience with Dementia (ASCED) was created. It consists of 24 items, divided into three subscales--the empathetic caregiving experience, the disciplinary caregiving experience, and the resigned caregiving experience. It also divides caregivers into six types. Work needs to be performed not only to further evaluate changes in the caregiving experience through refinement of the ASCED, but also to qualitatively and quantitatively investigate the nature of the care given to elderly individuals with dementia.     

Shaping mutuality: nurse-family caregiver interactions in caring for older people with depression

ABSTRACT:  This paper reports on the research findings derived from a grounded theory study that examined the processes through which community mental health nurses work with families of older people with depression. Data were collected through semistructured, in-depth interviews with six community mental health nurses and seven family caregivers of older people with depression, and observations of their interactions in natural settings. Data collection and analysis were guided by theoretical sampling and the constant comparative process. The findings indicate that the nurse−­family caregiver relationship involves working towards mutuality, which is shaped by both the nurse and family caregiver. It is through the process of 'shaping mutuality' that a nurse and family caregiver learn to collaborate, and achieve their individual goals and desired outcomes, both for the patient and for themselves.