A Comparison of the Created Clinical Nursing Theory with Watson’s Theory of Human Caring

Watson’s theory of nursing outlines how nurses should care for patients. This theory focuses on humanistic nursing care and its integration into scientific nursing practice. This theory stresses health promotion, caring for the sick, disease prevention, and disease treatment (Pajnkihar et al., 2017). Watson noted that nursing practice is more than just a medical cure. Watson’s theory advocates for holistic nursing as the foundation of nursing care. By practicing holistic nursing, nurses can care for patients to promote growth and create an environment that considers patients’ preferences and needs (Pajnkihar et al., 2017).

Watson’s theory defined three meta paradigms in nursing, which are person, health, and nursing. A human being is a valued person who needs to be respected, nurtured, helped, and cared for (). This theory views human beings as fully functional. This theory defines health as a high level of mental, social, and physical functioning (Pajnkihar et al., 2017). Healthy individuals can maintain adaptive levels of daily functioning, have no illness, and make efforts to prevent infection. Nursing is defined as a profession of people and disease experience done by professionals, scientific and personal interactions (Pajnkihar et al., 2017). This theory also has ten caring needs that are important for nurses to address when caring for patients.

Watson’s theory can be compared to the view created for this paper. Nurses should implement evidence-based interventions to prevent falls. They should consider the needs of geriatric patients and know they are at risk of falls. This is their moral obligation. Many interventions can be implemented to prevent and reduce falls among geriatric patients. They include training nurses to identify patients at risk of falls and the use of alarms (Linehan & Linehan, 2018). These interventions will preserve safety and ensure the well-being of patients. This is in line with Watson’s theory of caring. Watson’s Caritas, which aligns with concept A in the created clinical nursing theory, is “promoting a supportive environment” (Pajnkihar et al., 2017).

Concept A states that in advanced old age, there is a deterioration of cognitive and physical function. Old age is also associated with complex health conditions, which increase their susceptibility to negative healthcare outcomes. Due to this fact, the healing environment should be supportive of geriatric patients aged sixty-five years and above. Any rugs that may cause falls to elderly patients should be removed in hospitals. The hospital floors should not be slippery, and proper lighting should be provided. This is a supportive environment that will reduce the risk of falls.

After comparing the created nursing theory and Watson’s view, it can be concluded that Watson’s approach can be applied to nursing science. This theory is compatible with nursing models and can be used in practical clinical situations. This scenario confirms that Watson’s caring theory guides interventions to prevent accidental falls in geriatric patients.

Discoveries Made and Impact on the Nursing Profession

During readings to complete this paper, it was discovered that there were nursing theories available to help nurses in their practice. This includes the environmentalist theory by Florence Nightingale and the caring theory by Jean Watson. These theories impact the nursing profession since they can guide evidence-based practice (EBP) in nursing. EBP uses approaches to help in implementing nursing interventions. The interventions are driven by clinical evidence and theoretical frameworks of theories like Watson’s theory. The other discovery is nursing is a profession that not only cures but also cares. This is supported by the ten Caritas processes in the idea of human caring. Nurses should serve as advocates for patients and be selfless in their actions. Questions that require further research are whether nursing theories guide evidence-based practice. Research should be done to determine if nursing theories can be applied in evidence-based practice.

Conclusion

Nursing theories are critical in nursing practice. These theories can guide nurses in their day-to-day clinical practice. They can help nurses to implement evidence-based practices. Accidental patient falls is a clinical issue that can be mitigated using nursing theories. A theory that can be applied is Watson’s theory of caring. This theory is compatible and practical and can be used to solve clinical problems in the nursing practice. The ten Caritas processes are critical in guiding nurses to implement holistic nursing care.

References

Alligood, M. R. (2021). Nursing theorists and their work E-book. Elsevier Health