Caring Caritas and Caring Relationship

Jean Watson's theory of caring has long been an important and profound theoretical framework for the practice and study of nursing, and has helped to revitalize the discipline in the current area. This theory has also led to significant changes in the ways in which nursing is carried out by many practitioners and in many institutions, contributing to more comprehensive and holistic approaches to patient care and developing deeper emotional and spiritual ties between individuals during the provision of care. The establishment of the Watson Caring Science Institute and its activities such as the International Caritas Consortium has led to an even more widespread adoption of caring techniques and a greater appreciation for the direct and practical benefits that this approach to nursing practice can have. The website for the WCI and the ICC provides an excellent overview understanding of the concept of caring in nursing practice, providing valuable insights to practicing nurses and to students.

Caring relationships in nursing practice are defined by deeper connections between individuals, including nurses and their patients, amongst nurses, and between all others involved in the provision of care. In order to develop...

Bringing together the patient, the family, and the community along with the knowledge, leadership, and interdisciplinary collaboration that is required to provide effective practical care allows for the development of true caring relationships between all members of the care providing team and thus facilitates well-being and personal growth.
The essential value that supports the concept of caring in the nursing profession as defined and advocated by Watson is the belief that all human beings have an intrinsic value, and that each individual and every life is worthy of the connection and caring of others. This is related to the ethical imperative to treat all human beings as ends in and of themselves; that is, people are not simply a means to another end -- a component that enables the treatment of disease, for example -- but rather are important in and of themselves, and can be addressed on their own terms and for their own fulfillment. This concept carries with it a moral component of finding the good in every individual to serve as a point of connection between the observer and the observed -- a morality of…