Culture and Caring Theories
Which of the Culture and Caring Theories Most Resonates with You for Your Practice as an NP?
The culture and caring theory that resonates with me for my practice as a nurse practice is the Jean Watson theory of human caring.
How Does the Theory Integrate the Nursing Paradigm?
This theory encourages nurses to focus more on caring for their patients as opposed to curing the condition the latter have. The theory believes that the field of nursing differs substantially from medicine. While medicine focuses on curing patients, nursing aims at caring for the patients. According to Watson, her theory of caring entails nursing caring for self and others, using caring to forge transpersonal relationships, reflection, and developing caring moments (Butts & Rich, 2018). As such, Jean Watson’s theory views nursing as a field of practice founded on caring relationships that benefits both the clients and nurse professionals and which transcend the restoration of the patient’s health.
What Parts of the Theory Do You Identify With?
To begin with, I resonate with how Jean Watson’s theory of human caring focus on the three domains of human needs, which are physical, spiritual, and psychological. For Watson, a person has three dimensions, which are the soul, mind, and body (Nikfarid, Hekmat, Vedad, & Rajabi, 2018). As such, Watson believes that each of these dimensions must be put into consideration by nurses when they are caring for their patients. For me, illness is more spiritual than physical. At the same time, I resonate with the 10 Caritas processes suggested by Watson. Two of these Caritas are empathy and authentic relationship (Butts, & Rich, 2018). I believe that nurses have a responsibility to act as a bridge between the patient and his or her family members and the healthcare team. Nurses can only achieve this goal by developing empathetic and authentic relationships with their patients.
How Does the Theory Help to Meet CLAS Standards to Advance Health Equity?
Jean Watson’s theory focuses on nurses offering the kind of care that considers the patient’s values, culture, religion, and norms (Nikfarid et al. 2018). This covers many of the CLAS standards, for example, when it comes to the provision of respectful, effective and equitable care that considers the patient’s health practices and beliefs, health literacy level, and preferred languages. By developing authentic relationships with their patients, nurses get to learn about the former’s health-related beliefs and culture as well as risk and protective factors.