Caring is a complex and multidimensional concept. The quality of interaction in patient care encounters is affected by philosophical beliefs that shape practice design, delivery, and structural aspects of the practice environment. Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing operates two nurse-managed centers that address diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease care; these play a critical role in the reduction of cost of care. In this article, we demonstrate the impact of following a caring philosophy in our centers through intersubjective, interobjective, interior and exterior individual, and collective measures. A philosophy of caring in action allows these centers to become places where the beauty and mystery of the human life experience is lived, studied, and researched.

Caring, the core of nursing practice, remains a complex and vaguely defined concept. This paper presents various attempts to define caring and factors that affect its demonstration and associated outcomes from perspectives of patients and nurses. An integrative review was conducted from literature indexed in electronic databases from 2003 to 2014. Most published articles on caring were from Western cultures with a limited number from others. Caring was defined as a set of behaviors (knowledge, attitudes, and skills) exhibited in the process and context of the nurse-patient interaction. It is influenced by personal characteristics, culture, and the general environment of the nurse and client engaged in relationship. Caring behaviors were expressed in a continuum from mere presence to the performance of competent nursing care. Caring has been known to produce client satisfaction and positive patient outcomes.

A tranquility room in the nursing environment can serve as a self-reflective sanctuary. Self-reflection is essential to gain a true sense of authenticity and service to others (Pipe & Bortz, 2009). Telemetry nurses participated in a qualitative research study based on grounded theory and the theory of human caring. Caring perspective themes relating to the wellness of the mind, body, and spirit were identified. Fostering a supportive patient-centered environment the tranquility room facilitated a presence of self. Nurses are able to nurture and relate caring in their relationships with colleagues and patients when provided with the opportunity for self-care and reflection.

The human social principle of Reciprocal Ethical Caring (REC) has not been measured in long-term care (LTC) settings. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate dimensions of REC in the nurse-nursing assistant Caregiver reciprocity Scale (NNA-CRS). Psychometric investigation (N = 1,050) resulted in three factors: Balanced Reciprocal Ethical Caring Team Work (7 items), Love and Affection (5 items), and Intrinsic Rewards (4 items). Cronbach alphas were .891, .800, and .815, respectively. Fit indices supported use of the NNA-CRS in LTC (CFI = .947, RMSEA = .060, AGFI= .926, CMIN/DF = 4.720, NFI = .933, and RMR = .036).

A pilgrimage invites one to be present in stillness and solitude, meeting the unknown and gazing with new eyes. The experience can be challenging and unsettling as questions and truths are revealed. It is a time of deep contemplation where the pilgrim feels “very much apart from the rest of the world...You are an observer” (Watson, 2006, p. 289). this narrative essay shares the transformation that I experienced when I undertook an intentional walk in honor of a friend. The lessons of the journey are transformative and have deepened my life as a woman and holistic nurse.

This study describes different perspectives of dignity in the care of residents experienced by family caregivers. Both patients and family caregivers express existential concerns about dignity in care, but differences between these experiences are out of phase with each other. Individual interviews with 28 family caregivers were conducted between January and February 2010. Data were analyzed using the philosophical hermeneutic method; reflection, preunderstanding, interpretation, and new understanding played an important role in the ongoing process of analysis. The findings describe the family caregivers’ experiences in daily life to receive dignifying care for their relatives and also how struggling with their own vulnerability opens up the existential dimension of dignity.

There seems to be a schism between philosophical descriptions of care ethics and nurses’ concrete experiences with nurse-patient collaboration. The article uses the Norwegian doctor of philosophy Kari Martinsen’s phenomenological philosophy of care as a framework to reflect on and connect to the impact on nursing. Nursing as a relationship-based moral practice is understood in the light of the philosophy of connected relations, the source of morality, and the concrete practical situation. Love, trust and power reflect the ethical demand in the concrete and asymmetrical nurse-patient relationship. Becoming whole; nursing practice and a philosophy of care are to be understood as intertwined.

Caring leads and inspirits the creation of our new baccalaureate nursing program. Tension is recognized in the space where the dominant technical paradigm meets interpretive questions of meaning. The authors create caring pedagogical places, including a Caring Circle, for dwelling together in essential ontological questions. Students’ reflections and shared conversations become human science text for this hermeneutic phenomenological exploration of the lived experience of prenursing students. Themes of longing, belonging, vulnerability, and comfort emerge. Being in caring circles offers radical possibilities for a pedagogy of being and becoming in nursing education.

This article presents the journey that was taken by a nursing department in a 335-bed state mental health treatment facility. The journey was the decision to choose Nursing as Caring as the practice model. While other models were discussed, Nursing as Caring was chosen. This model supports recovery-oriented treatment and the organization’s philosophy, and it speaks to the value of interpersonal relationships so important to mental health nursing. Finally, nursing as caring has helped us define our practice.

Caring for the elderly has opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. Nurses have a great role to play in the lives of older adults through the love and caring that nursing truly represents. My story illuminates caring energy that transcends from a nurse to bring about healing in a patient.

The mothers of hospitalized newborns are faced with the difficult challenge of separation. Journaling may narrow the separation gap and strengthen the caring connection. A qualitative study was developed utilizing a grounded theory approach and the theory of human caring to investigate the caring perspectives of mothers separated from their newborns. All mothers, separated from their hospitalized newborn, in a 9-bed neonatal intensive care unit were given a journal. Questionnaires were given to the mothers when their newborns were discharged. The investigation was focused on mothers’ caring perspectives toward their newborns and the process of journaling. The study revealed the theoretical premise that journaling provides opportunities for the expression of feelings, self-healing while building and strengthening caring connections thereby facilitating attachments.

The human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic has heightened recognition that nurses are the gatekeepers to healthcare in Africa. Building nursing capacity has been identified as critical. This study measured knowledge acquisition, attitude, and belief change regarding care in American nursing students of HIV patients and compared the effect of international travel and cultural immersion on the same criteria. A quasi-experimental, longitudinal study surveyed nursing students at three points in time. Statistically significant changes in scores demonstrated greater willingness to provide care and moderate knowledge improvement occurred. The study indicated that international travel contributes to greater changes in attitudes and beliefs and improved knowledge retention.

This paper will examine chaos theory, bifurcation points, non-equilibrium states, and the unity of transpersonal interconnectedness in relation to patients’ disease processes and the utilization of Jean Watson’s theory of human caring. An explanation of the nurse’s ability to participate in a transpersonal caring moment and how the nurse’s caring presence facilitates patients toward higher levels of evolutionary order will be offered. Adiscussion regarding the impending paradigm shift within contemporary health care will elucidate the nursing profession’s need for an integral approach to nursing education and practice, one where both medical-technological interventions and holistic-humanistic-caring approaches are equally valued and enacted.

More liberalized visiting policies have not become universal and many hospital intensive care units (ICUs) still have restrictive visiting hours even though the benefits of more lenient visiting hours outweigh the negative effects. This article describes the meaning and effects of flexible visiting policies upon family coping for the author and her family when a family member is a patient in an ICU. The article includes a historical review of visiting policies in the ICU, a description of the philosophy of the time, and a description of the change in nursing beliefs about the concept of caring. The influence of Leininger’s and Watson’s theories of caring on nursing and nursing education are discussed and connected with the trend toward less restrictive visiting policies.

The downsizing movement left fractures in the healthcare system for patients, nurses, and healthcare providers. To heal the fractures, nurses at the Baptist Hospital of Miami developed the patient care facilitator (PCF), a clinical leadership role for nurses within a smaller area of patient responsibility (12-bed hospital), to provide caring professional nursing practice for both patients and staff. This article describes the multimethod research done to evaluate the impact of the role on continuity of care for patients and caring behaviors of nursing staff. All methods, both qualitative and quantitative, converged and clearly demonstrated the value of the PCF in providing continuity of care from a caring framework.

This study describes and illuminates voluntary lay doula caring during childbearing for the woman and her partner. The theoretical perspective is based on Eriksson's theory of caritative caring. Latent qualitative content analysis was chosen using semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of nine voluntary unpaid lay doulas in a Nordic nongovernmental organization. Caring as incubating, messaging, alleviating, and enabling offers a new understanding of doula care as tailored continuous caring to benefit the birth experience of both parents. This core of caring might also provide a mutual basis for collaboration between voluntary doula care and professional midwifery care.

Nursing theory and differing sources of nursing knowledge have focused the argument that nursing theory and nursing practice must be founded on a scientific base. The phrase “evidence based” is increasingly entering the discourse around nursing effectiveness and has captured the attention of managers, because of its seeming potential to rationalize costs in healthcare provision, and researchers, because of its association with problems related to lack of adoption of research findings in nursing. A potential exists to broaden the chasm between the art and the science of nursing, when the art of nursing is gaining credibility. This paper challenges the current of evidence-based practice. It argues that the two concepts, when viewed through the postmodern lens, are not necessarily an oxymoron.

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities have overcome the abuses of the past but continue to be challenged by discrimination and stigmatization. This article highlighted and reconciled the tension to care for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Autonomy, facilitated by relationship with trusted advocates, can move individuals forward and replace age-old precepts of paternalism as individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities exert their citizenship. Nurses and other healthcare providers can create new models of service delivery focused on caring, in relationship with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, continuing the evolution of care and culture change needed for belonging.

The aim of this article is to illuminate and explore the universal meaning of claritas. In caring science and caritative caring, the unity of truth, good, and beauty constitutes the fundamentals, but the unity does not become ontologically evident before claritas enters the arena. Claritas guides human performance, and it is the clear light which brings about caritas. Thus, claritas might facilitate carrying out what is good in a responsible, courageous, and Âretian way, meaning that all caring is grounded in ethos and wisdom. “To the same extent as caritas, claritas should be considered a core concept in caring science.”

This continuing education article analyzes Sumner’s theory, the moral construct of caring in nursing as communicative action. The dissemination of the theory includes the development of an instrument, its application to nursing administration, and its promise for use in patient care situations. It serves as a framework for nurses providing direct care to patients to reexamine the nurse–patient relationship.

Nurse educators are faced with the challenge of teaching students to be both competent practitioners and compassionate caregivers. Nursing education largely focuses on technical proficiency, nursing knowledge, and evidence-based practice. As a result, there is less emphasis on caring, with an erosion of empathy in nursing students. Building on the foundations laid by Dewey, Buber, and Watson, nurse educators can design pedagogical approaches connecting cognitive and affective learning to increase empathy in students now and encourage compassionate practice in the future. Furthermore, nurse educators can serve as role models of compassionate care through engaging in authentic, caring relationships with students.

Caritas nurses cultivate the soul and spirit of their patients, as well as attend to their emotional and physical needs. This exemplar of caritas nursing shows how the nursing staff in a neuro-surgical intensive care unit (ICU), where a new mother had been admitted after having grand mal seizures during delivery, used technology to bring mother and baby together. Using iPhones and Facetime, the ICU nurses arranged for the mother to see her baby boy in the newborn nursery for the very first time, in real time. This caring moment exemplifies many of Watson’s caritas processes. Participating in these caring moments is the greatest reward of nursing.

Several literature reviews forewarned that theory evaluation and the use of nursing theories are unfortunately declining within the discipline. In this article, a French-Canadian conceptual model of nursing is described, then critiqued based on Chinn and Kramer's method of theoretical evaluation. Five documents were read iteratively as a means to identify the purposes, concepts, definitions, relationships, structure, and assumptions of this conceptual model. Then, as suggested by Chinn and Kramer, its clarity, simplicity, generality, accessibility, and importance are discussed. The conclusion summarizes the main results of the evaluation and its implications for the future refinement of the conceptual model.

The profession seeks to recruit and retain qualified nurses, while embracing a diverse workforce. A descriptive naturalistic inquiry was undertaken with a population whose voice has not been actively solicited in the literature, that of practicing registered nurses (rns) who are male. the research question was, “What is the essence of nursing as perceived by practicing rns who are male?” through purposive sampling, 11 male nurses were interviewed. The meta-theme, nursing as caring, emerged as participants described the essence of their nursing practice as caring. This essence centered on caring for and caring about people. Findings support that caring, as a concept, transcends gender.

Relationships are at the core of human needs. However, despite nursing’s long history of emphasizing caring in relationships, the focus of healthcare delivery and education, defined largely by the biomedical model, has been on illness, curing, and healthcare financing. This conceptual framework is an interdisciplinary model developed to provide a guide for healthcare practitioners and educators in both practice and curricular development. It will appeal to those of many disciplines who want to infuse curricula or organizations with a new sense of meaning and spirit. RCC: the expanding cup model provides new insights and opportunities for intervention and research within the context of relationships.

Interpretive phenomenology was used in this study to explore what keeps nurses in nursing by examining the impact of the relational experience of the nurse caring for the nursed in the context of the nursing situation. Eight practicing nurses were interviewed about what keeps them in nursing. Data were analyzed using Heideggerian hermeneutics and the theoretical framework of Boykin and Schoenhofer’s nursing as caring theory. Four themes, practicing from inner core beliefs, understanding the other from within, making a difference, and nursing as an evolving process, supported one constitutive pattern, intentional compassion energy, revealing that nurses intend to care compassionately.

A descriptive correlational study was undertaken to provide insight into the relationship between caring ability (innate caring) and competency with caring behaviors (professional caring) of student nurses. Currently, little research addresses these aspects of caring simultaneously. The study found significant correlations between caring ability and caring competency for first and fourth semester students, but no significant difference in caring ability between first semester and fourth semester students. The results suggest that nursing education significantly impacts the development of professional caring behaviors, but has little effect on innate caring ability. Higher caring ability scores were associated with increased caring competency

The aim of the study is to evaluate psychometric properties of the Chinese version of Caring Factor Survey-Caring of Manager (CFS-CM), which evaluated by using with classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT). CTT analyses evaluate include internal consistence reliability, test–retest reliability and construct validity. IRT analyses were conducted to test the unidimensionality, item fit, item difficulty, the reliability, and rating scale analysis. CTT showed good psychometric properties of the CFS-CM. However, IRT revealed some problems of category level. Taking the above issue into consideration, it could be beneficial to perfect the CFS-CM in the future.

This study offers insight into an innovative approach to teaching and learning nursing through the use of nursing situations. A Heideggerian, hermeneutic phenomenological study of the lived experience of teaching and learning from nursing situations was conducted with 10 participants, all of whom had taught in a caring-based curriculum and had experience teaching from nursing situations. The data revealed 3 relational themes: Focusing on the Discipline of Nursing, Moving Away From the Way We Were Taught, and Trusting the Process. A constitutive pattern emerged, Learning to Dance, expressing the alternating rhythms of teacher and student.

Relationship-Based Care (RBC) was the intervention used to instruct nursing staff (N = 34) in Rotherham, England how to use social and technical dimensions of their work environment and concepts of caring to care for self and for patients at risk for readmission to the hospital. Pre-post RBC implementation survey results and regression equations were used to understand the relationship between the work environment and caring for self and others. Results revealed an improved work environment and caring from pre- to post-RBC. The work environment predicted 14.4% of nursing staff self-care (alpha .15) and 11.4% of caring competence (alpha .05).

The art and science of nursing is integrated in undergraduate nursing programs. This research, utilizing interpretive description methodology, explored and expanded knowledge related to baccalaureate nursing students’ caring values and abilities in the simulation environment. A focus group followed by six interviews with students from a Canadian prairie province provided the rich subjective perceptions of caring. These perceptions are incorporated with theoretical perspectives revealing an opportunity to further the art and science of nursing, impact nursing education, increase capacity of simulation, and deepen the understanding of caring practices.

The purpose of this review was to explore the literature as it relates to the impact of study abroad from the perspective of host community members. Research regarding study abroad focuses on the benefits and impact on student participants leaving a limited body of knowledge that focuses on the host community perspective. Guided by Watson's Human Caring Science, an integrative literature review with descriptive analysis was conducted. Four themes surfaced from the review: establishment of trust, consideration of reciprocity, acknowledgment of responsibility, and implementation of preparation. Each theme was discussed in detail and connected to Watson's 10 caritas processes.

The purpose of this study is to describe parents’ perceptions of the caring characteristics of physicians and nurses who take care of their children with CHD undergoing heart surgery. This is a qualitative descriptive study with interviews guided by Swanson Theory of Caring. According to parents’ descriptions, the top four caring characteristics of physicians and nurses are competence, altruism, responsibility, and empathy. Caring physicians and nurses not only treat patients’ physical illnesses with medical knowledge but also care for their psychological and emotional needs. Physicians’ and nurses’ caring characteristics facilitate the dissemination of professional expertise and make advanced technologies meaningful.

Loss is a fundamental human experience, and with loss comes grief. Healthcare's fast-paced, high-tech, professional environment is juxtaposed to the human caring focus of the nursing profession. Providing nurses with a theoretical context for working with people dealing with loss and grief will help nurses to provide care to those in need. By employing the three major conceptual elements of Watson's Theory of Human Caring, the caritas processes, the transpersonal caring relationship, and the caring occasion/caring moment, a nurse can create a more holistically therapeutic experience for patients and families.

This cross-sectional, descriptive survey study aimed to examine the relationships among nursing students' perceptions of faculty caring, students' caring behaviors, and their confidence, satisfaction, and empathy in an undergraduate nursing program. The instruments included the Caring Behaviors Inventory-16 Student Version, Nursing Students' Perceptions of Instructor Caring, and students' confidence, satisfaction, and empathy. There were significant pair-wise relationships among students' perceptions of faculty caring, students' caring behaviors, satisfaction, confidence, and empathy. Students' perceptions of faculty caring were a significant predictor for students' caring behaviors. These findings are significant in future designing and implementing interventions to enhance students' learning experiences.

“What do I do with myself now?” This issue has been raised, understood, and considered as a planned, gradual transition to retirement and a norm for many years. However, retirement is a broad concept and requires an in-depth review as a caring phenomenon among nursing faculty. The researchers aimed to unveil what lies in the minds of nursing faculty on their near retirement. The study utilized descriptive qualitative design to decipher the thoughts and feelings of nursing faculty from 10 nursing schools representing the three major regions in the Philippines. Convenience sampling was employed, and 20 nursing faculty members’ interviews saturated the data. Typologies were developed that would guide the caring providers and organizations about the needs and expectations of nursing faculty who are nearing their retirement.

Family caring is not yet fully understood by the nursing discipline as an entity apart from caring for individuals. Aesthetic expression of research findings give voice to the family experience during illness and contribute to an understanding of family caring that may transform nursing practice. The phenomenon revealed by seven families experiencing chemotherapy-induced neutropenia was turbulent waiting with intensified connections. This phenomenon was interpreted by an impressionistic artist in an acrylic painting that elicited strong emotive responses from families, researchers, nurses, and students. Visual art illuminated cancer as a family experience that would benefit from practice focused on family caring.

The technological advancement in healthcare is shaking up the way nurses render care. From robotic surgeries, electronic medical records, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and humanoid healthcare robots, the continuity of nurse caring is further illuminated in situations of advancing technology that require a call for nursing. In this changing work environment, technological competence is undoubtedly imperative. However, it takes more than just being technologically competent to address the complex needs of patients. Understanding not only how, but why we need these technologies in patient care delivery is a requisite to nurse caring.

Synchronicity in the Human–Space–Time Theory of Nursing undergirds the innovative process of nursing engagement expressed as interpersonal relating, technological knowing, rhythmical connecting, and transformational engaging. The philosophical and theoretical perspectives declare the evolutionary design in affirming the meaningful human caring experiences within nursing practice. Moreover, theory-based practice sustains the human science view of wholeness of persons while focusing on the inclusion of the coexistence between technology and caring in nursing. The practice of nursing approaches human caring beyond the customary, fragmented, and routinary healthcare commitment.