Jean Watson Nursing Theory - The Philosophy and Science of Caring

The Philosophy and Science of Caring, which was published in 2008. She currently holds an endowed chair at the University of Colorado, and in 2008, she created the Watson Caring Science Institute to help spread her nursing theory and ideas.

Jean Watson was born in a small, close-knit town in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia in the 1940s. Jean Watson graduated from the Lewis Gale School of Nursing in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1961. She continued her nursing studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, earning a B.S. in 1964, an M.S. in psychiatric and mental health nursing in 1966, and a Ph.D. in educational psychology and counseling in 1973.

Jean Watson's Philosophy and Science of Caring addresses how nurses express care to their patients. Caring is central to nursing practice, and promotes health better than a simple medical cure. She believes that a holistic approach to health care is central to the practice of caring in nursing.

According to Watson, caring, which is manifested in nursing, has existed in every society. However, a caring attitude is not transmitted from generation to generation. Instead, it's transmitted by the culture of the nursing profession as a unique way of coping with its environment.

According to her theory, caring can be demonstrated and practiced by nurses. Caring for patients promotes growth; a caring environment accepts a person as he or she is, and looks to what he or she may become.

Caring consists of carative factors. Watson's 10 carative factors are:

1.) The formation of a humanistic- altruistic system of values. 2.) The installation of faith-hope. 3.) The cultivation of sensitivity to one’s self and to others. 4.) The development of a helping-trust relationship. 5.) The promotion and acceptance of the expression of positive and negative feelings. 6. The systematic use of the scientific problem-solving method for decision making. 7. ) The promotion of interpersonal teaching-learning. 8.) The provision for a supportive, protective and /or corrective mental, physical, socio-cultural and spiritual environment. 9.) Assistance with the gratification of human needs. 10.) The allowance for existential-phenomenological forces.

Virginia Henderson's Nursing Theory - Need Theory

Virginia Henderson Biography

Virginia Henderson was born on November 30, 1897 in Kansas City, Missouri, and was the fifth of eight children in her family.

In 1921, Henderson graduated from the Army School of Nursing at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. In 1932, she earned her Bachelor's Degree and in 1934 earned her Master's Degree in Nursing Education, both from Teachers College at Columbia University.

Henderson died on March 19, 1996.

Army School of Nursing, Washington, D.C., 1921

• First full-time nursing instructor in Virginia
• Recipient of the Virginia Historical Nurse Leader Award
• Member of the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame
• Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing
• Authored one of the most widely used definitions of nursing
• Proposed plan to create districts within the Graduate Nurses Association of Virginia (now Virginia Nurses Association)

Virginia Henderson's Nursing Theory - Need Theory

Virginia Henderson categorized nursing activities into fourteen components based on human needs. The fourteen components of Henderson's concept are as follows:

1. Breathe normally. Eat and drink adequately.
2. Eliminate body wastes.
3. Move and maintain desirable postures.
4. Sleep and rest.
5. Select suitable clothes-dress and undress.
6. Maintain body temperature within normal range by adjusting clothing and modifying environment
7. Keep the body clean and well groomed and protect the integument
8. Avoid dangers in the environment and avoid injuring others.
9. Communicate with others in expressing emotions, needs, fears, or opinions.
10. Worship according to one’s faith.
11. Work in such a way that there is a sense of accomplishment.
12. Play or participate in various forms of recreation.
13. Learn, discover, or satisfy the curiosity that leads to normal development and health and use the available health facilities.

The first 9 components are physiological. The tenth and fourteenth are psychological aspects of communicating and learning The eleventh component is spiritual and moral The twelfth and thirteenth components are sociologically oriented to occupation and recreation.

Virginia Henderson's Nursing Theory - Need Theory