What is Watson’s Theory of Transpersonal Caring?

According to Watson’s theory, “Nursing is concerned with promoting health, preventing illness,
caring for the sick, and restoring health.” It focuses on health promotion, as well as the treatment
of diseases. According to Watson, caring is central to nursing practice, and promotes health
better than a simple medical cure.

The nursing model also states that caring can be demonstrated and practiced by nurses. Caring
for patients promotes growth; a caring environment accepts a person as he or she is, and looks to
what he or she may become.

Assumptions
Watson’s model makes seven assumptions:
(1) Caring can be effectively demonstrated and practiced only interpersonally.
(2) Caring consists of carative factors that result in the satisfaction of certain human needs.
(3) Effective caring promotes health and individual or family growth.
(4) Caring responses accept the patient as he or she is now, as well as what he or she may
become.
(5) A caring environment is one that offers the development of potential while allowing the
patient to choose the best action for him or herself at a given point in time.
(6) A science of caring is complementary to the science of curing.
(7) The practice of caring is central to nursing.

Major Concepts
The Philosophy and Science of Caring has four major concepts: human being, health,
environment or society, and nursing.
-Society
Society provides the values that determine how one should behave and what goals one should
strive toward. Watson states:
“Caring (and nursing) has existed in every society. Every society has had some people who have
cared for others. A caring attitude is not transmitted from generation to generation by genes. It is
transmitted by the culture of the profession as a unique way of coping with its environment.”
-Human being
Human being is a valued person to be cared for, respected, nurtured, understood, and assisted; in
general a philosophical view of a person as a fully functional integrated self. Human is viewed as
greater than and different from the sum of his or her parts.
-Health
Health is the unity and harmony within the mind, body, and soul; health is associated with the
degree of congruence between the self as perceived and the self as experienced. It is defined as a
high level of overall physical, mental, and social functioning; a general adaptive-maintenance
level of daily functioning; and the absence of illness, or the presence of efforts leading to the
absence of illness.
-Nursing
Nursing is a human science of persons and human health-illness experiences that are mediated by
professional, personal, scientific, esthetic, and ethical human care transactions.
-Actual Caring Occasion
Actual caring occasion involves actions and choices by the nurse and the individual. The
moment of coming together in a caring occasion presents the two persons with the opportunity to
decide how to be in the relationship – what to do with the moment.
-Transpersonal
The transpersonal concept is an intersubjective human-to-human relationship in which the nurse
affects and is affected by the person of the other. Both are fully present in the moment and feel a
union with the other; they share a phenomenal field that becomes part of the life story of both.

What influenced Dr. Jean Watson’s Caring Theory?

Jean Watson developed her Theory of Human Caring between 1975-1979. Watson's
influence to develop her Theory of Human Caring was derived through:
 own personal views, studies, experiences, and involvement in academic nursing
curriculum.
 Through Watson's own personal tragedies of losing her eye and tragically losing her
husband to suicide, her own experiences with caring caregivers shaped her life's journey.
 Her focus was to bring a deep meaning to nursing that requires a unique "caring-healing"
skill through her framework that she calls "carative factors".

Reference
Watson Caring Science Institute and International Caritas Consortium. (2013)Caring
Science. Retrieved from
http://wasoncaringscience.org/about-us/caring-science-definitions-processes-theory/

Barriers of the Implementation of Dr. Jean Watson’s Caring Theory

The barriers that exist are influenced by:
 Technology
 work environment
 a nurse’s background and education
 hospital driven initiatives to meet insurance criteria (Hills & Watson, 2011).
How do we combat these barriers?
Specific care interventions are centered on the most important aspects for the patient (Drenkard,
2012). These can include but are not linked to
(1) Allowing quite time for prayer or other religious activities.
(2) Patient reflection activities to discuss life experiences and influences.
(3) Discussion centered on personal goals and expectations.

The Impact of Dr. Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring

The nursing impact of Dr. Watson’s theory of human caring resonates on multiple levels.
 Individually, the nurse grows and becomes aware of the self and his or her role in care delivery
of a patient (Black, 2016; Hills & Watson, 2011).
 The nurse is cognizant of the influences that make up the metaparadigm and directly influences
his or her care to meet the needs of the patient (Black 2016; Hills & Watson, 2011).
 Additionally, Dr. Watson’s human caring theory advances nursing as a profession using caring
science as the anchor in our career mission. It separates nursing from the medical science the
physicians use to treat diseases (Black, 2016; Hills & Watson, 2011).
 Nurses concentrate on the health of the patient and their healing process, not their diagnosis.
Thus, enhancing their care experience. Parcells & Nelson speaks to the care experience and being
measurable by patient satisfaction scores.
Human Caring matters for several reasons. For one, it restores humanity though the use of heart,
soul, purpose, and compassion. Secondly, it generates human-caring knowledge and put it to practice.
Lastly, it allows the development of trust within the metaparadigm and emphasizes care to a moral &
philosophical approach.