JEAN WATSON' S PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY OF TRANSPERSONAL CARING

- human to human relationship

- accepted and used worldwide
- undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing and psychiatric-mental health and PhD
in educational psychology and counseling.
- authored 11 books, shared in authorship of 9 books, and has written countless articles in
nursing journals
Therapeutic touch- binibigay sa patient

ORIGINAL 10 CARATIVE FACTORS

HER CONCEPT IN NURSING

Nursing involves the application of art and human science through transpersonal
transactions in order to help the person achieve mind, body, and soul
harmony(kapayapaan).

Watson states that she is “attempting to integrate these wounds into my life and work.
One of the gifts through suffering was the privilege of experiencing and receiving
my own theory.”

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
they are and looks to what they may become.

7 ASSUMPTIONS OF CARING SCIENCE

1.Caring can be effectively demonstrated and practice only inter-personally(other

person, communication).
2. Caring consists of carative factors that result in the satisfaction of certain human
needs.
3. Effective Caring promotes health an individual or family growth.
4. Caring responses accept a person not only as he or she is now but as what he or may
she become.
5. A caring environment is one that offers the development of potential while allowing the
person to choose the best action for himself at a given point in time.
6. A science of caring is therefore complementary to the science of curing.(magkaib
ang curing(focus on medical model) sa caring(focus on physiologic problems) )
7. The practice of caring is central nursing.

MAJOR ELEMENTS OF CARING

1. TRANPERSONAL CARING RELATIONSIP

 How the nurse goes beyond an objective assessment, showing concerns toward
the persons subjective and deeper meaning regarding their own health care
situation.

2. CARING OCCASION/ MOMENT

 Moment when the nurse and another person came together in such way that
occasion for human caring is created.

3. CARATIVE FACTORS

TEN CARATIVE FACTORS

 Guide for the core of nursing, need to be addressed nurses with their patients when
in caring role.
 Carative(for nurses) term to contrast with curative(for doctors).
 It honors the human dimensions of nursing work and inner life world and subjective
experiences of patients.

WATSON OFFERED A TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL CARATIVE

FACTORS INTO CLINICAL CARITAS PROCESS THAT SUGGESTED WAYS
TO APPLY THE 10 CARATIVE FACTORS

Carative Factors Caritas Processes

1.“The formation of a humanistic- altruistic “Practice of loving-kindness and
system of values” equanimity within the context of caring
consciousness”(selfless nurse)
2. “The instillation of faith-hope” “Being authentically present and enabling
and sustaining the deep belief system and
subjective life-world of self and one being
cared for”(one call away nurse, tanong na
tanong ganon, nurse can be someone do
depend on)
3. “The cultivation of sensitivity to one’s “Cultivation of one’s own spiritual
self and to others” practices and transpersonal self going
beyond the ego self”(you can’t give what
you have)
4. “Development of a helping-trust “Developing and sustaining a helping
relationship” became “development of a trusting authentic caring relationship”(gain
helping-trusting, human caring relation” and give the trust towards your patient)
5.“The promotion and acceptance of Being present to, and supportive of, the
the expression of positive and negative expression of positive and negative feelings
feelings” as a connection with deeper spirit and
self and the one-being-cared
for”(nagtitiwala na si patient sa nurse, care
din ang pakikinig sa pasyente)
6. “The systematic use of the scientific “Creative use of self and all ways of
problem solving method for decision knowing as part of the caring process; to
making” became “systematic use of a engage in the artistry of caring-healing
creative problem solving caring process” practices”(step by step curing the patient
assessment, diagnosis, implementation
and evaluation)
7. “The promotion of transpersonal “Engaging in genuine teaching-learning
teaching-learning” experience that attends to unity of being
and meaning, attempting to stay within
others’ frame of reference”(nurses job was
to educate the patient)
8.“The provision of supportive, protective, “Creating healing environment at all
and (or) corrective mental, physical, levels (physical as well as nonphysical,
societal, and spiritual environment” subtle environment of energy and
consciousness, whereby wholeness,
beauty, comfort, dignity, and peace are
potentiated)” (healing environment is a
must like rooms and all, yung ibibigay
kung ano nakakapag pasaya ganon)
9. “The assistance with gratification of “Assisting with basic needs, with an
human needs” intentional caring consciousness,
administering ‘human care essentials,’
which potentiate alignment of mind body
spirit, wholeness, and unity of being in all
aspects of care”(satisfying needs)
10. “The allowance for existential- “Opening and attending to spiritual-
phenomenological forces” mysterious and existential dimensions of
became“allowance for existential- one’s own life-death; soul care for self and
phenomenological-spiritual forces” the one-being-cared for”(motivations)

Watson’s Hierarchy of Needs

 Lower Order Biophysical Needs or Survival Needs(foods, hangin, malinis na

kapaligiran, tubig)
 Lower Order Psychophysical Needs or Functional Needs(belongingness, social
factors)
 Higher-Order Psychosocial Needs or Integrative Needs(needs achievement or
growths, good news, affirmation)
 Higher-Order Intrapersonal- Interpersonal Need or Growth-seeking need
THEORETICAL ASSERTIONS

Nursing

 To her, nursing consists of “knowledge, thought, values, philosophy, commitment,

and action, with some degree of passion”
 Nurses are interested in understanding health, illness, and the human experience;
promoting and restoring health; and preventing illness.
 as the “trim” of nursing, in contrast to the “core”(charateristics ganon) of
nursing"
 Using the original and evolving 10 carative factors, the nurse provides care to various
patients.

Personhood (Human Being)

 Watson uses interchangeably the terms human being, person, life, personhood, and
self.
 She views the person as “a unity of mind/body/spirit/nature” ,(wholeness) and she
describes that “personhood is tied to notions that one’s soul possess a body that is not
confined by objective time and space.

Health

 the positive state of physical, mental and social being and with three elements
(1) a high level of overall physical, mental, and social functioning
(2) a general adaptive maintenance level of daily functioning
(3) the absence of illness
 Health is for “unity and harmony within the mind, body, and soul”
 it is associated with the “degree of congruence between the self as perceived and
the self as experienced”

Environment

 Watson speaks to the nurse’s role in the environment as “attending to supportive,

protective, and or corrective mental, physical, societal, and spiritual
environments” in the original ten carative factors.
 Healing spaces can be used to help transcend illness, pain, and suffering.

APPLICATION OF THEORY

 Her model of nursing reflects and embodies the true essence of the nursing
profession to this everyday.
 It viewed as the Mind-Body-Spirit entity that needs holistic nursing care.
 One major implication of the theory is in the realm of bedside nursing, where
nurses today have particularly began to neglect.
 The essence of nursing is in the caring aspect and caring is taking the wholeness, the
totality.
 It is every nurse's duty and obligation to care for his patient not by merely looking
into and caring for his physical disease but try to care for who he is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Dz9K7qdIk&t=193s

Watson's Philosophy and Transpersonal Caring is concerned with how nurses care to
their patients. Also, interwine with scientific knowledge and nursing practice.

Strengths

 The model can guide and improve practice as it can equip healthcare providers
with the most satisfying aspects of practice and provide the client with holistic care.
 Watson considered using nontechnical, sophisticated, fluid, and evolutionary
language to artfully describe her concepts, such as caring-love, carative factors, and
Caritas.
 The carative factors are logically derived from the assumptions and related to the
hierarchy of needs.
 Watson’s theory is best understood as a moral and philosophical basis for nursing.
The scope of the framework encompasses broad aspects of health-illness phenomena.
 Also, the theory addresses aspects of health promotion, preventing illness, and
experiencing peaceful death, thereby increasing its generality.
 The carative factors provide guidelines for nurse-patient interactions, an
important aspect of patient care.

WEAKNESS

 The theory does not furnish explicit direction about what to do to achieve
authentic caring-healing relationships.
 Nurses who want concrete guidelines may not feel secure when trying to use this
theory alone.
 Some have suggested that it takes too much time to incorporate the Caritas into
practice, and some note that Watson’s personal growth emphasis is a quality “that
while appealing to some may not appeal to others.

Caring is different from curing- Jean Watson

Caring is the essence of nursing- Jean Watson

Caring,Clinical Wisdom, and Ethics in Nursing Practice

By: Patricia Benner

INTRODUCTION

 Benner acknowledges that her thinking in nursing was influenced greatly by Virginia
Henderson.
 Benner studies clinical nursing practice in an attempt to discover and describe the
knowledge embedded in nursing practice.
 Dr Patricia Benner introduced the concept that expert nurses develop skills and
understanding of patient care over time through a sound educational base as well as a
multitude of experiences.
 She proposed that one could gain knowledge and skills ("knowing how") without
ever learning the theory ("knowing that").
 She further explains that the development of knowledge in applied disciplines such
as medicine and nursing is composed of the extension of practical knowledge (know
how) through research and the characterization and understanding of the "know how"
of clinical experience.
 She conceptualizes in her writing about nursing skills as experience is a prerequisite
for becoming an expert.
 Benner’s work as applied to the nursing profession is adapted from the Dreyfus
Model of Skill Acquistion.

LEVELS OF NURSING EXPERIENCE

She described 5 levels of nursing experience as;
(to move forward on the next stage kailangan may ma achieve muna)

1. Novice (mostly applicable for students dahil wala pang experience)

a) Beginner with no experience
b) There is difficulty discerning between relevant and irrelevant aspects of a
situation
c) Taught general rules to help perform tasks
d) Context-free rules and objective attributes must be given to guide performance.
e) This level applies to students of nursing
2. Advanced Beginner (fresh graduate nurses, need pa din ng guide)
a) Demonstrates acceptable performance
b) Has gained prior experience in actual situations to recognize recurring
meaningful components
c) Nurses functioning at this level are guided by rules and oriented by task
completion
d) Advanced beginners feel highly responsible for managing patient care, yet still
rely on the help of those who are most experienced( Benner et al., 1992)
e) This level mostly applies on the newly graduate nurses
3. Competent(medyo nakaka adjust na, nakaka unti ng gumawa ng di na need ng tulong
galing sa iba)
a) Typically a nurse with 2-3 years experience on the job in the same area or in
similar day-to-day situations
b) More aware of long-term goals
c) Gains perspective from planning own actions based on conscious, abstract, and
analytical thinking and helps to achieve greater efficiency and organization
d) The competent stage is most pivotal in clinical learning, because the learner must
begin to recognize patterns and determine which elements of the situation
warrant attention and which can be ignored.
4. Proficient (pro na , malalim at malawak na ang alam tungkol sa mga bagay bagay)
a) Perceives and understands situations as whole parts
b) More holistic understanding improves decision-making
c) Learns from experiences what to expect in certain situations and how to modify
plans
d) Nurses at this level demonstrate a new ability to see changing relevance in a
situation, including recognition and implementation of skilled responses to the
situation as it evolves
e) They no longer rely on preset goals for organization, and they demonstrate
increased confidence in their knowledge and abilities (Benner et al., 1992)
5. Expert (chief nurse, nag eevaluate ng mga nurses, responsible for clinical and patient
care standard, leader/head of the nurses)
a) No longer relies on principles, rules, or guidelines to connect situations and
determine actions
b) Much more background of experience
c) Has intuitive grasp of clinical situations
d) There is a qualitative change as the expert performer “knows the patient,”
meaning knowing typical patterns of responses and knowing the patient as a
person
e) The expert nurse has this ability to recognize patterns on the basis of deep
experiential background. For the expert nurse, meeting the patient’s actual
concerns and needs is of utmost importance, even if it means planning and
negotiating for a change in the plan of care

MAJOR CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS

ASPECTS OF A SITUATION

 The aspects are the recurring meaningful situational components recognized and
understood in context because the nurse has previous experience (Benner, 1984a).
(may na encounter/experience na, alam na ang ang gagawin dahil nakapag handle na
ng same disease)

ATTRIBUTES OF A SITUATION

 The attributes are measurable properties of a situation that can be explained without
previous experience in the situation (Benner,1984a).(walang experience pero need pa
din alamin kung ano ang dapat gawin)

COMPETENCY

 Competency is “an interpretively defined area of skilled performance identified and

described by its intent, functions, and meanings” (Benner, 1984a, p. 292). This term
is unrelated to the competent stage of the Dreyfus model.

DOMAIN
 This is an area of practice having a number of competencies with similar intents,
functions, and meanings (Benner, 1984a). (tinitingnan yung
competency/skill/performance ng isang nurse)

EXEMPLAR

 An exemplar is an example of a clinical situation that conveys one or more intents,

meanings, functions, or outcomes easily translated to other clinical situations
(Benner, 1984a).

EXPERIENCE

 Experience is not a mere passage of time, but an active process of refining and
changing preconceived theories, notions, and ideas when confronted with actual
situations; it implies there is a dialogue between what is found in practice and what is
expected (Benner & Wrubel, 1982).(experienced, makakakita ng differences sa
practice at real life situation)

MAXIM

 This is a cryptic description of skilled performance that requires a certain level of

experience to recognize the implications of the instructions (Benner, 1984a).

PARADIGM CASE

 A paradigm case is a clinical experience that stands out and alters the way the nurse
will perceive and understand future clinical situations (Benner, 1984a). Paradigm
cases create new clinical understanding and open new clinical perspectives and
alternatives.(learning is a continuous process, hindi lang dapat theory ang susundin
pede din madagdagan natin thru experience)

SALIENCE

 Salience describes a perceptual stance or embodied knowledge whereby aspects of a

situation stand out as more or less important (Benner, 1984a).

7 domains of nursing practice

(the nurse/talents na need ng nurse)
1. The helping role(as a nurse gving comfort and presence, teacher, mother, advocate)
(number 1 role)
2. The teaching-coaching function(assissting, giving interpretation, teaching)(have the
role to teach patient )
3. The diagnostic and patient monitoring function(documenting, monitoring the patient)
(caring and curing aspect)
4. Effective management of rapidly changing situations(kailangan attentive kung wala
 ang ang doctor)(mother to assist, influence them towards the changes that happening)
5. Administering and monitoring therapeutic interventions and regimens
6. Monitoring and ensuring the quality of health care(providing back up system to
ensure safe medical and nursing care, assessing what can be safely omitted from or
added to the medical orders)
7. Organizational work role competencies(coordinating, ordering and meeting multiple
patient needs and request in other world setting priority)

9 domains of critical care nursing practice

(5 of them is the process or procedure for the fast recovery )
Critical nurses connects with the bantay
1. Diagnosing and managing life-sustaining physiological functions in unstable patients
2. Using the skilled know-how of managing a crisis
3. Providing comfort measures for the critically ill
4. Caring for patients’ families
5. Preventing hazards in a technological environment
6. Facing death: end-of-life care and decision making
7. Communicating and negotiating multiple perspectives
8. Monitoring quality and managing breakdown
9. Using the skilled know-how of clinical leadership and the coaching and mentoring of
others

6 aspects of clinical judgment and skillful comportment:(interpretation of data nung

9 kanina)(hindi agad agad na aachieve ng nurse, learn from the experience)
1. Reasoning-in-transition
2. Skilled know-how
3. Response-based practice
4. Agency
5. Perceptual acuity and the skill of involvement
6. Links between clinical and ethical reasoning

4 Domains of Nursing Paradigm

1. Client/Person- “A person is a self-interpreting being, that is the person does not come
into the world predefined but gets defined in the course of living a life”

Four major aspects of understanding that the person must deal with:

1. The role of the situation

2. The role of the body
3. The role of personal concerns
4. The role of temporality

5 Dimensions of the body ( Merleau, Ponty & Dreyfus)

1.The unborn complex

 2.The habitual skilled body
3.The projective body
4.The actual projected body
5.The phenomenal body

2. Health- Dr. Benner focuses on the lived experience of being healthy and being ill.
- Health is defined as what can be assessed, whereas well-being is the human
experience of health or wholeness
- Well being and being ill are understood as distinct ways of being in the world

3. Situation- Benner and Wrubel use the term situation rather than environment, because
situation conveys a social environment with social definition and meaningfulness.
- They use the phenomenological terms being situated and situated meaning,
which are defined by the person’s engaged interaction, interpretation, and
understanding of the situation.
- This means that each person past, present, and future, which include her or his
own personal meanings, habits, and perspectives, influence the current situation.

4. Nursing- Nursing is described as a caring relationship an “enabling condition of

connection and concern”(Benner and Wrubel, 1989)
- “Caring is primary because caring sets up the possibility of giving help and
receiving help”
- Nursing viewed as a caring practice whose science is guided by the moral
art and ethics of care and responsibility
- Benner and Wrubel understand nursing practice as the care and study of
the lived experience of health, illness, and disease and the relationships among
these three elements.

CONCLUSION

 Caring, Clinical Wisdom, and Ethics in Nursing Practice

 “The nurse-patient relationship is not a uniform, professionalized blueprint but rather
a kaleidoscope of intimacy and distance in some of the most dramatic, poignant, and
mundane moments of life.”
 Attempts to assert and reestablish nurses’ caring practices when nurses are rewarded
more for efficiency, technical skills, and measurable outcomes.
 States that caring practices are instilled with knowledge and skill regarding everyday
human needs.

PHILOSOPHY OF CARING
KARI MARIE MARTINSEN

→ Norwegian nurse and philosopher

→ Born on January 20, 1943 in Oslo, Norway during the WW II German
occupation of Norway
→ Influenced and grew up in moral and sociopolitical issues
→ In 2011, Martinsen was recognized as a Knight, 1st Class, of the Norwegian
Order of St. Olav for her significant work, thought, and authorship in nursing
science.
→ A nursing theorist who proposed a philosophy of caring in reaction to: o social
and health care inequalities o nursing's uncritical adoption of science as the basis
for nursing.

→ It involves a collectivist vision of humanity in which the individual is dependent

upon the community and creation, or nature, and caring rather than control
should be the guiding philosophy. As it relates to nursing, caring is
simultaneously relational, practical, and moral. Caring involves concrete action
based on education and training, without which concern for the patient is mere
sentimentality.

THEORETICAL SOURCES

3 PHILOSOPERS SHE LOOKED IN PARTICULAR:

✓ KARL MARX
o Critical Analysis – A Transformative Practice

✓ EDMUND HUSSERL
o Phenomenology as the Natural Attitude

✓ MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
o The Body as the Natural Attitude

Other philosophers, theologians, & sociologists:

o Martin Heidegger: Existential Being as Caring

o Knud Eiler Løgstrup: Ethics as a Primary Condition of Human Existence
o Max Weber: Vocation as the Duty to Serve One’s Neighbor through One’s Work
o Michel Foucault: The Effect of His Method Intensifying Phenomenologists’
Phenomenology o Paul Ricoeur: The Bridge-Builder

KARL MARX
Critical Analysis – A Transformative Practice

-Social inequalities
o Marxist philosophy gave Martinsen some analytical tools to describe the
reality and the social crisis of the discipline of nursing
o She found that the discipline was part of positivism and the capitalist
system, without accepted practice of liberation (freedom).
• Positivism – belief that human knowledge is produced by the scientific
interpretation of observational data
 o “Reversed care law”
• those who need care most receive the least
o Marx criticized ‘individualism’ and the satisfaction of the needs of the rich at the
expense of the poor. (there is an inequality)
→ In Martinsen’s view, it is important to expose this phenomenon when it
occurs in health service. Because exposure of this reality can be a force of
change.
→ It also one of the major ideas in Martinsen’s philosophy that the very
concept of hospital should be reworked and altered.
- dapat lahat pantay pantay, tatanggalin sa hospital ang effect ng social
status

EMUND HUSSERL
Phenomenology as the Natural Attitude

→ This is one of the critiques of Martinsen in terms of science and

positivism(scientific interpretation)
o Phenomenology insists upon context, wholeness, involvement,
engagement, the body and the life.
o The body cannot be divided into body and soul
• it is a wholeness that relates to other bodies, to things in the world, and
to nature.
- when we are taking care of someone or a patient as a nurse we should not
focus scientific sides we should also consider the well being of the
patient(wholeness)

MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
The Body as the Natural Attitude

o The body we have = natural attitude

o Described that nursing profession relates to the body that represents as
natural attitude

1. We use our bodies in the performance of caring, as well as to other bodies that
need treatment and care.
2. Now, nurse and patients express themselves through action, attitudes, words,
tone of voice, and gestures.
3. That is why, it involves acts of interpretation that reinforce involvement and
engagement between nurse and patient to provide ng holistic care to the patient.

MAJOR CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS

CARE- the positive development through the Good

o Caring is directed outward toward the situation of the other.
o Forms not only the value base of nursing, but is a fundamental precondition
for our lives. (naka imposed na, tatak)
 o Care is a trinity: relational, practical, and moral simultaneously
o In professional context:
• caring requires education and training

PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT AND DISCERNMENT

o The exercise of professional judgment in practical that we use and learn for
clinical observation

MORAL PRACTICE IS FOUNDED ON CARE

o “Moral practice is when empathy and reflection work together in such a way
that caring can be expressed in nursing”
• Moral
- involved w/ or related to principles of what is considered righteous
behavior

o To discover how the other will best be helped: by recognition & empathy;
sincerity and judgment

PERSON-ORIENTED PROFESSIONALISM
o Demand professional knowledge to attend the patient, while protecting his
integrity
o It challenges professional competence and humanity
o Understanding of one’s situation and acting from it professionally.

SOVEREIGN LIFE UTTERANCES

o Sovereign life utterances are openness, mercy, trust, hope, and love →
through interactions (need of a person)
o Just like we are given time, space, air, water, and food

Caring can–
→ Bring the patient to experience the meaning of love and mercy;
→ Light hope or give it sustenance;
→ Build trust and openness in relations with the nurse.

o Lack of care can block the other’s experience of mercy; it can create mistrust
and an attitude of restraint in relation to the health service.

THE UNTOUCHABLE ZONE (boundaries that we should respect, there should

be a line in between the nurse and the patient)
o Zone that we must not interfere
o Refers to boundaries we must have respect
o Creates a certain protective distance in the relation

VOCATION
o An ethical demand to take care of one’s neighbor.
o Person's occupation that is specifically regarded as worthy and requiring
dedication
o e.g., Why did you pursue nursing? Because it humbles you. You want to help
and take care of people. It makes you humane.

THE EYE OF THE HEART

o Seen through the eyes but felt from the heart.
o The Good Samaritan o Being touched or moved by the suffering of the
situations experienced by others

REGISTERING EYE
o Objectifying; perspective of the observer
o Concerned with finding connections, systematizing, ranking, classifying,
ang placing in a system
o What we use when we are observing the patient for gathering objective
data

4 MAJOR ASSUMPTIONS

NURSING
→ Trinity of Caring
• Relational – caring requires at least 2 people; interpersonal
• Practical – it is about concrete and practical action
– it comes from professional training and learned through
practice.
• Moral – an ethical practice requires courage to be moral, taking tough
stands for what is right, and living by one's moral values.

→ “Performing nursing is essentially directed towards ‘persons not capable of

self-help’ [patient], who are ill & in need of care. To encounter the ill person w/
caring through nursing involves a set of preconditions such as knowledge, skills,
and organization.”

PERSON
o The individuals that we relate to ourselves, to others, and to the world.
o A unit of soul/spirit and flesh; the bodies that we both perceive and
understand

HEALTH
→ Martinsen discussed the health from sociohistorical perspective
o “Health does not only reflect the condition of the organism, it is also an
expression of the current level of competence in medicine.”
o If one has unnecessary ‘defect’, then one is not completely healthy.

ENVIRONMENT: SPACE AND SITUATION

o A place and situation we share with other people
o “Space in which to perceive– smell, listen, see, and care”
SUMMARY

Martinsen has both personal and sociopolitical interest in the ill and in those
who, for other reasons, fall outside of society. Her theoretical stance can be
called critical and phenomenological. She takes as her starting point the idea that
human beings are created and are beings for whom we may have administrative
responsibility. We are relational and dependent on each other and on the
creation. Therefore, caring, solidarity, and moral practice are unavoidable
realities.

On the subject of caring, Martinsen challenges society, the politics of health

care, and health care workers themselves to realize the values inherent in caring
through concrete policies and practical nursing. She deliberately gives few
directives for action. Rather, she asks nurses to think themselves into the
situations of patients and family members and to arrive at the best choices for
action based on a rich situational understanding, professional insight, and a
caring attitude.

Martinsen's thought has provoked, engaged, and created debate and

professional development in nursing in the Nordic countries over the past 30
years. Her thought challenges nurses to “think along”– both think and act well
and correctly, critically, and differently in nursing, in education, and in research.
Martinsen's "caring thought" contributes to the enlightenment of nursing and
nursing research through its perspectives, concepts, and insights based on
historical and philosophical scholarship and research.