Watson

Margaret Jean Watson,
PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN
Philosophy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring
“Caring in nursing conveys physical acts, but

embraces the mind-body-spirit as it reclaims the
embodied spirit as its focus of attention”.
History and Background

 Margaret Jean Harman-Watson
 June 10, 1940
 Welch, West Virginia
 Education:
 1964 – BSN
 1966 – MS
 (Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing)
 1973 – PhD
 (Psychology and Counseling)

Distinguished professor of nursing
 Founder of original Center for Human Caring in Colorado
 Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing
 Previous Dean of Nursing
 Widely published author and recipient of several awards and honors
Research: Human Caring and Loss
1979 - “Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring”
1985 – “Nursing: Human Science and Human Care”
1999 – “Postmodern Nursing and Beyond”
2002 – “Instruments for Assessing and Measuring Caring in Nursing and Health
Sciences”
2005 – “Caring Science as Sacred Science”
Theoretical Sources
 Main concepts include the 10 carative factors

 Expanded 10 carative factors to “caritas”
 “transpersonal caring relationship” as foundation to her theory
 10 Caritas process guide the relationship and set the foundation for
caring
Major Assumptions
 According to Watson (2001), the major elements are:

 The carative factors
 The transpersonal caring relationship
 The caring occasion/caring moment
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 himself or
herself at a given point of time.
6. A science of caring is complementary to the
science of curing.
7. The practice of caring is essential to nursing.
Ten Creative Factors (Watson, 1998b, p.75)
1. The formation of a humanistic-altruistic system of values.
2. The instillation of faith-hope.
3. The cultivation of sensitivity to one’s self and to others.
4. The development of a helping-trusting human caring relation.
5. The promotion and acceptance of the expression of positive and
negative feelings.
6. The systematic use of a creative problem solving caring process.
7. The promotion of transpersonal teaching-learning.
8. The provision for a supportive, protective, and corrective mental,
physical, sociocultural, and spiritual environment.
9. The assistance with the gratification of human needs.
10. The allowance for existential-phenomenological-spiritual forces. (in
the 2004 Watson website)
Watson’s (2001) translation of the “carative factors”

into “clinical caritas” processes (CCP)
CCP#1: Cultivating the practice of loving-kindness and equanimity toward self

and other as foundational to caritas consciousness.
CF: The formation of a humanistic-altruistic system of values.
 Learned early in life.

 Influenced by nurse educators and clinical experience.
 Satisfaction through giving and extension of self.
CCP#2: Being authentically present, enabling, sustaining, and honoring the

faith, hope, and deep belief system and the inner-subjective world of
self/other.
CF: The instillation of faith-hope.
 Facilitate promotion of holistic nursing care and positive health.

CCP#3: Cultivation of one’s own spiritual practices and transpersonal self,
going beyond ego self.
CF: Cultivation of sensitivity to one’s self and to others.
 Recognition of feelings leads to self-actualization.
CCP#4: Developing and sustaining a helping-trusting, authentic caring

relationship.
CF: Development of a helping-trusting human caring relation.
 Strongest tool is the mode of communication

 Characteristic needed:
 Congruence
 Empathy
 Warmth
CCP#5: Being present to, and supportive of, the expression of positive and
negative feelings as a connection with deeper spirit of self and the-one being
cared for.
CF: The promotion and acceptance of the expression of positive and negative
feelings
 The nurse must recognize that intellectual and emotional

understandings of a situation differ.
CCP#6: Creative use of self and all ways of knowing as part of the caring
process to engage in artistry of caring-healing practices/caritas.
CF: The systematic use of a creative problem solving caring process.
 Requires various ways of knowing
CCP#7: Engaging in genuine teaching-learning experience that attends to unity

of being and meaning, attempting to stay within others’ frames of reference.
CF: The promotion of transpersonal teaching-learning.
 It separates caring from curing.

CCP#8: Creating healing environment at all levels (physical as well as non-
physical), subtle environment of energy consciousness, whereby wholeness,
beauty, comfort, dignity and peace are potentiated.
CF: Provision for a supportive, protective and/or corrective mental, physical,

socio-cultural and spiritual environment.
 Internal and external environments influence health and illness of

individuals.
CCP#9: Assisting with basic needs, with an intentional caring consciousness,

administering ‘human care essentials,’ which potentiate alignment of mind-
body-spirit, wholeness and unity of being in all aspects of care; tending to
both the embodied spirit and evolving spiritual emergence.
CF: The assistance with the gratification of human needs.
 The nurse recognizes the biophysical, psychophysical, psychosocial,

and intrapersonal needs of self and patient.
Watson’s Ordering of Needs

Lower order needs (biophysical needs)
The need for food and fluid
The need for elimination
The need for ventilation
Lower order needs (psychophysical needs)
The need for activity-inactivity
The need for sexuality
Higher order needs (psychosocial needs)
The need for achievement
The need for affiliation
Higher order need (intrapersonal-interpersonal need)
The need for self-actualization

CCP#10: Opening and attending to spiritual – mysterious and existential
dimensions of one’s own life-death; soul care for self and the one-being-cared-
for. (Watson, 2001, p.347)
CF: The allowance for existential-phenomenological-spiritual forces.
 Phenomenology - a way of understanding people from the way things

appear to them.
 Existential psychology – the study of human existence using
phenomenological analysis.
Use of Empirical Evidence
 Incorporates empiricism but emphasizes approaches that begin with

nursing phenomena rather than with natural sciences. (Leininger, 1979)
 Metaphor and poetry
Metaparadigm
 PERSON/HUMAN BEING
 HEALTH
 ENVIRONMENT/SOCIETY
 NURSING
Nursing
 Nurse is both a noun and a verb.
 Consists of “knowledge, thought, values, philosophy, commitment, and

action, with some degree of passion”
 Calls nurses to go beyond procedures, tasks, and techniques in in

practice.
Person
 Uses the terms human being, person, life, personhood, and self.
 “unity of mind/body/spirit/nature”
 “It is often considered dualistic because I use the three words ‘mind,
body, soul’ but my intention is to make explicit spirit/metaphysical –
which is silent in other models”
(Watson, personal communication, April 12, 1994)
Health
 “unity and harmony within the mind, body, and soul”; associated with
the “degree of congruence between the self as perceived and the self as
experienced”
Environment
 “attending to the supportive, protective, and/or corrective mental,

physical, societal, and spiritual environments”
 “the caring science is not only for sustaining humanity, but also for
sustaining the planet”
 “when the nurse enters the patient’s room a magnetic field of

expectation is created”
THEORY ANALYSIS
Critique: Clarity
 Watson has given each concept in her theory a clear and specific definition.
 Relationships between the concepts are also outlined and used uniformly.
 The connections and reasoning within the theory are essentially
comprehensible.
Critique: Simplicity
 Watson’s theory makes use of sophisticated language to put forth

subtle thoughts about caring, and this entails “reading between the
lines” to decipher its profound meaning.
Critique: Accessibility
 Watson draws heavily on widely accepted work from other disciplines.
 She describes her theory as descriptive and she acknowledges the

evolving nature of the theory and welcomes input by others.
Critique: Importance
 Theoretical concepts such as use of self, patient-identified needs, the

caring process, and the spiritual sense of human being, may help nurses
and their patients find meaning and harmony in a period of increasing
complexity.

Watson

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Watson

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Watson

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Margaret Jean Watson,

PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN

Philosophy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring

“Caring in nursing conveys physical acts, but

History and Background

 Main concepts include the 10 carative factors

 According to Watson (2001), the major elements are:

1. Caring can be effectively demonstrated and

Watson’s (2001) translation of the “carative factors”

CCP#1: Cultivating the practice of loving-kindness and equanimity toward self

CF: The formation of a humanistic-altruistic system of values.

 Learned early in life.

CCP#2: Being authentically present, enabling, sustaining, and honoring the

CF: The instillation of faith-hope.

 Facilitate promotion of holistic nursing care and positive health.

CF: Cultivation of sensitivity to one’s self and to others.

 Recognition of feelings leads to self-actualization.

CCP#4: Developing and sustaining a helping-trusting, authentic caring

CF: Development of a helping-trusting human caring relation.

 Strongest tool is the mode of communication

 The nurse must recognize that intellectual and emotional

CF: The systematic use of a creative problem solving caring process.

 Requires various ways of knowing

CCP#7: Engaging in genuine teaching-learning experience that attends to unity

CF: The promotion of transpersonal teaching-learning.

 It separates caring from curing.

CF: Provision for a supportive, protective and/or corrective mental, physical,

 Internal and external environments influence health and illness of

CCP#9: Assisting with basic needs, with an intentional caring consciousness,

CF: The assistance with the gratification of human needs.

 The nurse recognizes the biophysical, psychophysical, psychosocial,

Watson’s Ordering of Needs

The need for food and fluid

The need for elimination

The need for ventilation

Lower order needs (psychophysical needs)

The need for activity-inactivity

The need for sexuality

Higher order needs (psychosocial needs)

The need for achievement

The need for affiliation

Higher order need (intrapersonal-interpersonal need)

The need for self-actualization

CF: The allowance for existential-phenomenological-spiritual forces.

 Phenomenology - a way of understanding people from the way things

Use of Empirical Evidence

 Incorporates empiricism but emphasizes approaches that begin with

 Metaphor and poetry

 Nurse is both a noun and a verb.

 Consists of “knowledge, thought, values, philosophy, commitment, and

 Calls nurses to go beyond procedures, tasks, and techniques in in

(Watson, personal communication, April 12, 1994)

 “attending to the supportive, protective, and/or corrective mental,

 “when the nurse enters the patient’s room a magnetic field of

 Watson’s theory makes use of sophisticated language to put forth

 Watson draws heavily on widely accepted work from other disciplines.

 She describes her theory as descriptive and she acknowledges the

 Theoretical concepts such as use of self, patient-identified needs, the

You might also like