Unitary Caring Science Research Articles

A Unitary Caring Theory Perspective of Adolescent and Young Adult Experiences of Resilience.

The major aim of this study was to understand the experience of resilience in adolescents and young adults within the context of a unitary caring science and to generate insights into ways to cultivate resilience in adolescents and young adults who have experienced adversity. Four major essences emerged and were synthesized into one statement. Maintaining hope and optimism for a promising future is acknowledging awareness and acceptance and experiencing connectedness while embracing power in the situation. The essences were interpreted within a theory of unitary caring.

Navigating chronic uncertainty: a theory synthesis for nursing communication in life-limiting illness

BackgroundDespite the proven benefits of early palliative care, patient communication regarding these services remains elusive. Therefore, this paper aims to (a) provide a focused literature review on nurse palliative care communication addressing chronic uncertainty in life-limiting illness (LLI), (b) define the Reconceptualization of Uncertainty in illness Theory and Problematic Integration Theory within a nursing Unitary Caring Science philosophical worldview and, (c) synthesize these theories and literature review into a unique theoretical framework for early palliative care communication in acute care nursing.MethodTurner’s theory synthesis methodology was combined with a PRISMA-style literature review. The literature search was conducted in July 2023 and updated in May 2024 using EBSCOhost, Pubmed, and PsychINFO databases. A second literature search was undertaken to identify applicable uncertainty theories in chronic or LLIs.ResultsThis theory synthesis highlights the interconnectedness of all facets of uncertainty for those living with severe LLI (personal factors, types of uncertainty, and the nursing communicatory process) and conceptualizes uncertainty communication as a series of events happening simultaneously, not simply a cause-and-effect process.DiscussionThe framework resulting from this synthesis encourages nurses’ holistic understanding of the complex nature of uncertainty in LLI, highlights the integral communicatory role nurses have in their patients’ health and wellness, and promotes further nursing-specific communication research. Future research on enabling nurse-initiated early palliative care communication and narrative communication techniques will support patients’ values and dignity throughout more than a single hospital stay but their entire disease trajectory.

Compassion Without Fatigue: A Unitary Caring Science Approach Part III—Theory-Guided Practice to Advance and Sustain Nurses

Abstract: This article offers a different path for the profession of nursing to consider to minimize compassion fatigue using caring science. The methods used in this study are taking the findings of a qualitative research study and looking at them through the lens of the theory-guided practice in Unitary Caring Science. This article offers new ways of patterning nurse experiences through the essential truths in Unitary Caring Science toward a path of experiencing compassion without fatigue. The article shares an ideal where compassion found within transpersonal relational caring moments becomes the hallmark to help the patients and nurses simultaneously heal.

Transcendental Meditation Enriches Nurses' Authentic Presence Through Caring for Self and Others.

Purpose of Study: Given the enormity of the most recent challenges to clinician well-being, intensified by the pandemic, we decided to explore the influence of Transcendental Meditation® (TM)® on the well-being of clinical nurses. The purpose of our study was to use qualitative analysis to enhance our understanding of the experiences of clinical nurses who practiced TM, as viewed through the lens of our conceptual model and Watson's holistic unitary caring science theory. Design and Method: This qualitative study involved a thematic analysis of clinical nurses' written descriptions following the completion of the TM program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings: The nurse participants shared their experiences with the practice of TM as creating present moment focus, leading to enhanced self-care, and development of authentic presence with others. The overall theme uncovered in the analysis is that authentic presence is veritas (truth) in knowing, being, doing, and becoming. Conclusions: The findings were congruent with Watson's unitary caring science theory and provided illumination of the holistic value of TM as a self-care strategy for supporting nurses' well-being with the goal of retaining nurses in practice. When nurses care for themselves, they are more likely and able to care for others, thus helping them to enjoy their nursing careers.

Existential Advocacy in Nursing Care: A Concept Analysis

As modern nursing advances at an astounding rate, existential advocacy (EA) is vital for delivering patient care in line with wellness goals and personal values. This concept analysis aims to define EA within the context of nursing and align the concept with Jean Watson’s Unitary Caring Science (UCS) and her 10 Caritas Processes. A comprehensive literature search identified 12 relevant publications from the following databases: PubMed, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and CINAHL. Subsequently, utilizing Walker and Avant’s method for concept analysis, a standardized structure to identify EA’s defining attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents emerged. Antecedents for EA are patient vulnerability, nurse-patient rapport, nurse autonomy to act as an advocate, and patient request for advocacy. Defining attributes of EA include the following: supporting patient self-determination, caring-trusting nurse-patient relationship, promoting individualized meaning of health and wellness, and encouraging values-based problem-solving. The optimal consequence of EA is patients’ awareness of their current health status, leading to individualized care and decision-making based on a patient’s values. EA is a nurse’s effort to support and promote their patients’ right to self-determination by helping them discern their holistic health and wellness situation and then clarify their values within that reality. Watson’s UCS and 10 Caritas Processes align with EA to facilitate nurse-patient transpersonal caring occasions. EA explicates the care and advocacy nurses provide into a defined concept while highlighting nurses’ essential role in patients’ physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. With EA better defined, the concept can be assessed, measured, and implemented within the discipline of nursing.

Compassion Without Fatigue. A Unitary Caring Science Approach: Part II—Essential Truths of Compassion Fatigue for Pediatric Nurses

This article shares the findings of a research study about the external and internal barriers and consequences nurses face as they try to ward off compassion fatigue. This qualitative research employs Relational Caring Inquiry, honoring unique narratives while gaining collective insight into the experiences of being a nurse. Participants for this study were nurses on inpatient units. Findings illustrate the tangible consequences nurses face from the complexities of working in today’s healthcare settings. The information shared reflects the profound purpose that nurses bring while shedding light on what keeps them from flourishing in their roles.

Themes of Liminality

Cancer family caregivers dwell in an evolving landscape of ambiguity and in-betweenness, as “betwixt and between,” in a space of unknowing. This space of unknowing exists within a transformational threshold of liminality, between what was known prior to the cancer and what will be known and embodied in the future. Theoretically grounded in Unitary Caring Science, this study used narrative inquiry alongside photo elicitation to cocreate cancer caregiver narratives and identify themes of liminality. Four thematic threads of liminality were identified as woven within and across the cancer caregiver narratives; stories of paradox, time warp, life disruption, and waiting in silence.

Concept Analysis of Disenfranchised Grief Within a Nursing Paradigm: To Awaken Our Caring Humanity

Disenfranchised grief is experienced during bereavement loss and after the loss of something personal, physical, or psychological in which a person lacks societal witnessing, empathy, or validation of their loss. A concept analysis was performed to identify the antecedents, attributes, and consequences of disenfranchised grief. A model case was developed to assist nurses in identifying patterns of disenfranchised grief. Grounded within the Unitary Caring Science paradigm, a new definition of disenfranchised grief was developed. Recommendations framed through the lens of Unitary Caring Science will guide nursing research and practice to enfranchise and humanize the grief experience.

Unitary Caring Science: Caritas Compassion Transpersonal Theory

This article presents a transformative perspective on contemporary nursing, emphasizing unity and interconnectedness in the post-Covid world. Prof. Jean Watson introduces "Unitary Caring Science" as a holistic approach to nursing, rooted in three ethical principles: The Ethic of Belonging, The Ethics of Face, and The Ethics of Hands. These principles guide the paradigm shift in nursing philosophy and practice. Dr. Watson discusses the "Ten Caritas Processes®," a foundational language for understanding and practicing human care. She highlights the importance of "Transpersonal Caring Moments," where nurses' presence and authenticity influence patient experiences. The article aligns this approach with the American Nurses Association's new definition, emphasizing compassion and presence in nursing care, and advocates for a holistic, interconnected nursing approach to uphold human dignity and compassion.

Narrative Inquiry as a Caring and Relational Research Approach: Adopting an Evolving Paradigm.

Humans are continuously storying and re-storying themselves through language and socially organizing language into narratives to create meaning through experiences. Storytelling through narrative inquiry can bridge world experiences and co-create new moments in time that honor human patterns as wholeness and illuminate the potential for evolving consciousness. This article aims to introduce narrative inquiry methodology as a caring and relational research approach aligned with the worldview grounding Unitary Caring Science. This article uses nursing as an exemplar to inform other human science disciplines interested in using narrative inquiry in research, while defining essential components of narrative inquiry through the theoretical lens of Unitary Caring Science. By exploring research questions through this renewed understanding of narrative inquiry informed by the ontological and ethical tenets of Unitary Caring Science, healthcare disciplines will be knowledgeable and prepared to facilitate knowledge development to contribute to the sustainment of humanity and healthcare beyond eliminating the cause of illness and into the experience of living well with illness. The co-creative process of narrative inquiry as a caring and healing inquiry can guide collective wisdom, moral force, and emancipatory actions by seeing and valuing human experiences through an evolved holistic and humanizing lens.

The State of the Science of Nurses' Implicit Bias: A Call to Go Beyond the Face of the Other and Revisit the Ethics of Belonging and Power.

This article summarizes the current state of nurses' implicit bias and discusses the phenomenon from Levinas' face of the Other and ethics of belonging, Watson's human caring and unitary caring science, and Chinn's peace and power theory. Nurses' implicit bias is a global issue; the primary sources of nurses' implicit bias include race/ethnicity, sexuality, health conditions, age, mental health status, and substance use disorders. The current research stays at the descriptive level and addresses implicit bias at the individual level. This article invites nurses to go beyond "the face of the Other" and revisit the ethics of belonging and power.

DESENVOLVIMENTO DO CACTO: PROGRAMA DE CUIDADO ÀS MÃES DE CRIANÇAS COM SÍNDROME CONGÊNITA DO ZIKA

ABSTRACT Objective: to develop a unitary caring program for mothers of children with Congenital Zika Syndrome. Method: this is a methodological study, based on Unitary Caring Science, developed in two phases: creation, consisting of six moments, and content validity, through the participation of 36 experts on the subject, professional caregivers and mothers. The Content Validity Index and the Content Validity Ratio were used for data analysis. Results: the program was named CACTO, composed of seven care modalities: Taking care of my mind; Upright and correct position; Taking care of my sleep; Family that is together; Mirror mirror on the wall; Mother who takes care of mother; Facing prejudices. CACTO was validated with a Content Validity Index ≥0.88 and critical Content Validity Ratio values greater than or equal to the cutoff point defined for each group of experts. Conclusion: the translation of Unitary Caring Science into a care program encourages professionals to promote innovative care, valuing acceptance, autonomy, citizenship and critical awareness, advocating in favor of emancipatory interactional care. CACTO is a technological innovation that can transform professional care, promote the resolution of mothers’ health needs and enhance the quality of life of children with Congenital Zika Syndrome, family and caregivers themselves.

Embodying Unitary Caring Science Perspective in Managing Cancer

Embodying Unitary Caring Science Perspective in Managing Cancer

“Love Is Love”: Unitary Caring Science Principles in Veteran’s Illness Narratives of Living With Heart Failure in Stories of the Heart Research Study

Heart failure impacts millions globally, yet relatively little information is available from a holistic, narrative perspective. This research brief used a unitary caring science perspective to explore illness narratives of military veterans with heart failure receiving care from a U.S. Veterans Administration facility. Five veterans were interviewed. Results were analyzed using established narrative methods. Components of unitary caring science that emerged included interconnection, caring, the importance of story, and meaning creation. These findings inform and expand unitary caring science research, expanding this approach to interdisciplinary applications and advancing understanding of the experience of U.S. veterans with heart failure.

Unitary Caring Science: A Hermeneutic-Phenomenological Research Method.

All phenomenological research, including descriptive phenomenological methods, are theory based. The knowledge in a discipline is built using discipline-specific methods. The purpose of this article is to develop and describe the processes of a mode of inquiry specific to caring in nursing theories housed within the unitary caring paradigm. Morgan's practical framework examining ontological-epistemological-methodological linkages was used to develop the unitary-caring hermeneutic phenomenological research method The method is specific to conducting hermeneutic phenomenological research within Watson's unitary caring science and Smith's theory of unitary caring. The method includes a process of linking and interpreting themes generated from the textual analysis of participant descriptions of the caring phenomena to concepts in the specific unitary caring theory that informs the researcher's a priori theoretical perspective to develop a theoretical understanding of the experience and contribute to the development of unitary caring nursing science.

Book Review: A Handbook for Caring Science: Expanding the Paradigm, by Rosa, W., Horton-Deutsch, S., & Watson, J. (Eds.). Springer.

This is a review of the book A Handbook for Caring Science: Expanding the Paradigm. Leading scholars in the field of Caring Science contribute to this important work covering a range of topics. The book is divided into 10 sections, each of which is focused on areas of Caring Science including practice, research, education, and leadership. Importantly, this work considers an international perspective. A focus on nurses' self- care is also emphasized. Grounding this work is a discussion of the philosophical, ontological, metaphysical, cosmological, and ethical ideas of Unitary Caring Science. This book is a must read for students, nurses in practice, nurse researchers, and academics who are interested in Caring Science.

Unitary Caring Science

The author in this article provides the introduction to the review of A Handbook for Caring Science: Expanding the Paradigm, edited by Rosa et al. (2019), contemplating Unitary Caring Science from a unitary transformative worldview.

A unitary caring science resilience-building model: Unifying the human caring theory and research-informed psychology and neuroscience evidence

Resilience is the psychological capability to recover from difficulties quickly. Healthcare professionals are especially vulnerable to job-related stress and burnout. Unitary Caring Science is the framework for Watson’s Human Caring Theory, providing a philosophy of practice in healthcare. With the high rates of clinician burnout and psychological issues, it will be significant to unify the human caring theory with research-informed psychological and neuroscience evidence to develop clinicians’ resilience-building strategies. The purpose of this article is to introduce a Unitary Caring Science Resilience Model and explain the science behind the core strategies based on Unitary Caring Science philosophy and the psychological and neuroscience research. This model includes six strategies: Embracing loving-kindness for self and others; Nurturing interpersonal and intersubjective connections/relations; Deepening a creative use of self and sense of belonging; Balancing self-learning, self-awareness, and an evolved self-consciousness; Valuing forgiveness and releasing negativity; Inspiring and maintaining faith-hope. The caring-theory guided resilience-building strategies are proven to alleviate the depletion of clinicians’ energy and emotions. Healthcare practices are challenging but rewarding. Clinicians can be emotionally, psychologically, and physically exhausted if they always consider themselves ‘giving’ and ‘doing’ institutional tasks without a sense of purpose or fulfillment. The practice can be rewarding if it becomes more aligned with clinicians’ value to serve humanity. Through the unitary caring science resilience strategies, clinicians can build resilience as an antidote to clinician burnout and depletion.

Academic caring pedagogy, presence, and Communitas in nursing education during the COVID-19 pandemic

Strong faculty academic human caring presence is paramount during the exponential use of asynchronous, remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this article is to provide a holistic, theoretical foundation for evidence informed-caring pedagogical practices. Watson's (2008; 2018) Unitary Caring Science theoretical approach offers one pedagogical caring framework for advancing teaching-learning in the digital age. Examples to humanize the virtual classroom and remote or online teaching include narrative, theory-guided pedagogical approaches, such as creation of caring spaces and other modalities to transcend physical distancing and nurture Communitas (caring community) among of faculty and students. A theory-guided, holistic caring pedagogical approach supports the needs of both faculty and nursing students.

Healthcare interprofessional team members' perspectives on human caring: A directed content analysis study

ObjectivesAs Watson's Human Caring Theory continues to evolve and guide the discipline of nursing, the challenge is to find ways to integrate it into practice. The purpose of this study is to describe interprofessional team members' perspectives on human caring based on the Ten Caritas Processes®/Caritas-Veritas Literacy of Watson's Human Caring Theory within the Unitary Caring Science. MethodsThis is a qualitative directed content analysis study, taking place in a Children's Hospital in the United States between November 2017 and April 2018. Information redundancy was utilized to guide the recruitment. Data were collected via a one-time face-to-face individual interview. A qualitative directed content analysis was conducted using Watson's Ten Caritas Processes®/Caritas-Veritas Literacy as a coding framework. ResultsTwenty-seven healthcare professionals participated in the study. Interprofessional human caring, based on the Ten Caritas Processes®/Caritas-Veritas Literacy, was referred to as performing loving-kindness to patients, each other, and self; maintaining faith-hope in teamwork; valuing inter-subjective interactions and building trust among team members; cultivating heart-centered-caring relations; acknowledging and processing positive and negative feelings non-judgmentally; applying all ways of knowing in caring; encouraging reciprocal teaching-learning; developing caring-healing environments collaboratively; respecting human dignity of patients and each other; and being open-minded to the unknowns and believing in miracles. ConclusionsWatson's Human Caring Theory can be an underlying guide to enrich human-to-human relations and create a caring-healing environment. When human caring is applied in interprofessional teams, healthcare professionals find a caring consciousness to care for oneself and each other and promote patient care.