Watson's Caring Theory

Caring is a term that is often associated with the nursing profession, it is viewed differently by every professional and can be practiced in several ways. Caring practices includes being able to connect with a patient by using a person-centred approach as well as having a mutual recognition and involvement (Berman et al., 2015, p. 493). In this assignment I will describe why I have chosen an image that I believe illustrates what caring means to me and how it signifies on how I feel about caring. I will also be discussing how my view of caring may influence me as a future nurse and lastly, I will reflect on how developing my own individual philosophy of professional caring is important.

Figure 1:

Teaching my four-year-old sister

In addition, philosophy prepares nurses with the tools to act as moral agents in providing the patient with the best care (Bruce, Rietze, & Lim, 2014, p. 65). There are several theories and practices of nursing, the ones I will be focusing in my philosophy include, Watson’s Caring Theory, Standards of Practice for Registered Nurses, Evidence-based Practice, Person-centred Care and Nursing Process. My nursing philosophy is based on utilising these theories by providing professional care to the best of my ability by utilising my attributes, working in a multidisciplinary team and not judging any patient. This is important to me because I have always wanted to be a nurse that is caring, in some of my hospitalisations when I was younger I was treated unprofessionally and disrespectfully by some nurses. These experiences make me want to be the best nurse I can possibly be and to not let my patients experience the negativity I did.

Watson’s Caring Theory has ten caritas processes, the ones I have identified the most include number one which is about respecting the patient; fourth processes which regards development of a helping-trusting relationship and the seventh processes that is about promoting interpersonal teaching (Wagner, 2010). I have identified with these processes the most because they all relate to my nursing philosophy,

EBP has 5 essential steps, asking a focused clinical question, acquiring the evidence to answer the question, appraising the research, applying the research findings to patient care, and finally evaluating your performance.” (Steglitz, Warnick, Hoffman, Johnston, & Spring, 2015). In my philosophy I sate that I want to provide the best care I capable of. I can show my professional caring by ensuring that practice is evidence-based by using the five essential steps of EBP. This will be ensuring that I provide educated healthcare to my