Watson's Theory of Caring & Care of Elderly Client

APPLICATION OF WATSON'S THEORY OF CARING TO THE CARE OF AN

ELDERLY CLIENT IN A LONG TERM CARE FACILITY

According to Watson (1988), caring about patients is central to nursing. However, in today's ideological and technological climate, the caring values of nurses and nursing have been submerged. Watson views the caring role to be threatened by increased medical technology, bureaucraticmanagerial institutional constraints, and a proliferation of curing and radical treatment cure techniques, often without regard to cost. Nurses are called upon to both preserve and advance human caring behavior and values through their interpersonal interactions with patients.

Watson (1995) lists ten carative factors said to be central to nursing behaviors that preserve and advance caring values. These factors are:

*Forming and Acting from a HumanisticAltruistic System of Values Enabling and Sustaining FaithHope

*Developing HelpingTrusting, Caring Relationship (seeking transpersonal connection)

*Promoting and Accepting the Expression of Positive and Negative Feelings and Emotions

*Engaging in Creative, Individualized, ProblemSolving Caring Process

*Promoting Transpersonal TeachingLearning Attending to Supportive, Protective, and/or Corrective, Mental, Physical, Societal, and Spiritual Environment

*Assisting with Gratification of Basic Human Needs, While Preserving Human Dignity and Wholeness

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s healed and returned to the congregate housing unit as soon as possible. The decision to engage Ms. Rose in this kind of relationship was made on the basis of Watson's principle that caring is altruistic and sustains hope in the patient. The staff's earlier response to her desire to return to congregate housing with the fact that they didn't know when or that there was no immediate answer to the question was viewed by Ms. B as a non-hope sustaining response. Therefore, prior to meeting with Ms. B. she looked into the nursing care records and determined the average length of stay in the nursing home for female clients of Ms. Rose's age, with similar physical/health status; she also determined the amount of variance in length of stay associated with these clients. Thus, when she entered Ms. Rose's room and was immediately asked by Ms. Rose when she could return to congregate housing, she was able to give her a reasonable estimate of about how long she might have to stay at the nursing facility. Nurse B. felt that not only was her ability to provide a reasonable, fairly precise answer to Ms. Rose's most pressing concern a hope builder, it was also a way of beginning to develop a trusting relationship. To further this sense o

Category: Psychology - W