Caritas Education: Theory to Practice

Abstract

Increasingly complex occupational demands along with varied educational and personal examples of caring, may impact the ability to deeply connect with patients. Literature has identified that nurses and patients have differing perceptions of caring behaviors. Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring provides a framework for care delivery that focuses on the caring nurse–patient relationship and the experience through the patients' lens.Caring healing relationships are at the core of professional nursing. The purpose of this project was to design and deliver an educational seminar based on Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring to newly graduated nurses to examine the impact on self-efficacy in caring behaviors.The project participants (N = 56) consisted of a nonprobability convenience sample of newly graduated nurses at a local faith-based community hospital. The educational intervention consisted of experiential learning activities to facilitate translating theory to practice. The study utilized the Caring Efficacy Scale (CES), which is an instrument based on Watson's caring theory and Albert Bandura's self-efficacy theory. Results demonstrated a significant improvement in caring efficacy between the preintervention (M = 5.1, SD = .47), and immediate post intervention (M = 5.5, SD = .38); t (52) = −9.09, p = .000.The knowledge from this study could provide insights for the development of effective teaching strategies to facilitate translating nursing theory to practice. Establishing and developing skills to facilitate nurturing, caring nurse–patient relationships may enhance both the patient and caregiver experience.