Jean Watson: Theory of Human Caring

Dr. Jean Watson is a nurse theorist who developed “Philosophy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring” or
“Caring Science” and founder of Watson Caring Science Institute. Get to know about Dr. Watson’s
nursing theory biography its major concepts and definition, works, awards and honors, and application
to nursing in this study guide.

Biography of Jean Watson

Jean Watson (June 10, 1940 – present) is an American nurse theorist and nursing professor known for
her “Philosophy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring.” She has also written numerous texts, including
Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring. Watson’s study on caring has been integrated into
education and patient care to various nursing schools and healthcare facilities worldwide.

Early Life

Jean Watson was born Margaret Jean Harmon and grew up in Welch, West Virginia, in the Appalachian
Mountains. She was the youngest of eight children and was surrounded by an extended family–
community environment. Watson attended high school in West Virginia and then the Lewis Gale School
of Nursing in Roanoke, Virginia, where she graduated in 1961.

Philosophy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring

Watson’s Philosophy and Science of Caring is concerned with how nurses express care to their patients.
Her theory stresses the humanistic aspects of nursing as they intertwine with scientific knowledge and
nursing practice.

The nursing model states that “nursing is concerned with promoting health, preventing illness, caring for
the sick, and restoring health.” It focuses on health promotion, as well as the treatment of diseases.

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

Watson also defined three of the four metaparadigm concepts in nursing, including the person or
human being, health, and nursing. She referred to the human beings as a valued person in and of
themselves to be cared for, respected, nurtured, understood, and assisted; in general, a person’s
philosophical view as a fully functional integrated self. A human is viewed as greater than and different
from the sum of his or her parts. Meanwhile, health is defined as a high level of overall physical, mental,
and social functioning, a general adaptive-maintenance level of daily functioning, the absence of illness,
or the presence of efforts leading to the absence of illness. And nursing is a science of persons and
health-illness experience mediated by professional, personal, scientific, and ethical care interactions.
She does not define the fourth metaparadigm concept of the environment but instead devised 10 caring
needs specific carative factors critical to the caring human experience that need to be addressed by
nurses with their patients when in a caring role.

Works

Watson has authored 11 books, shared in the authorship of six books, and has written countless nursing
journal articles.

Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring (1979)

Human Science and Human Care – A Theory of Nursing (1985)

Postmodern Nursing and Beyond (1999)

Instruments for Assessing and Measuring Caring in Nursing and Health Sciences (2002)

Caring Science as Sacred Science (2005)

Awards and Honors

She has been a founder and a member of the Board of Boulder County Hospice and numerous other
collaborations with area health care facilities. She has received several research grants and advanced
education federal grants and awards and numerous university and private grants, and extramural
funding for her faculty and administrative projects and scholarships in human caring.

In 1992, the University of Colorado School of Nursing honored Watson as a distinguished professor of
nursing. She received six honorary doctoral degrees from universities in the United States and three
Honorary Doctorates in international universities, including Göteborg University in Sweden, Luton
University in London, and the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. She received the National
League for Nursing (NLN) Martha E. Rogers Award, which recognizes nurse scholars’ significant
contributions to advancing nursing knowledge and knowledge in other health sciences in 1993. In 1997,
the NLN awarded her an honorary lifetime certificate as a holistic nurse. Finally, in 1999, Watson
assumed the nation’s first Murchison-Scoville Endowed Chair of Caring Science and currently is a
distinguished professor of nursing.

Qatar Conference Unified Caring Model for Gulf Countries UAE

Qatar Conference Unified Caring Model for Gulf Countries UAE

Watson was recognized as a Distinguished Nurse Scholar by New York University in 1998. And in 1999,
she received the Fetzer Institute’s National Norman Cousins Award to recognize her commitment to
developing, maintaining, and exemplifying relationship-centered care practices.
She is a Distinguished and/or Endowed Lecturer at national universities, including Boston College,
Catholic University, Adelphi University, Columbia University-Teachers College, State University of New
York, and universities and scholarly meetings in numerous foreign countries.

In 2010, Watson received an Honorary Doctor of Sciences in Nursing from the University of Victoria in
British Columbia, Canada.

Jean Watson’s “Philosophy and Theory of Transpersonal Caring” mainly concerns how nurses care for
their patients and how that caring progresses into better plans to promote health and wellness, prevent
illness and restore health.

Major Concepts

The Philosophy and Science of Caring have four major concepts: human being, health, environment or
society, and nursing.

Society

The society provides the values that determine how one should behave and what goals one should
strive toward. Watson states:

“Caring (and nursing) has existed in every society. Every society has had some people who have cared
for others. A caring attitude is not transmitted from generation to generation by genes. The culture of
the profession transmits it as a unique way of coping with its environment.”

Human being

Human being is a valued person to be cared for, respected, nurtured, understood, and assisted; in
general, a philosophical view of a person as a fully functional integrated self. A human is viewed as
greater than and different from the sum of his or her parts.

Health

Health is the unity and harmony within the mind, body, and soul; health is associated with the degree of
congruence between the self and the self as experienced. It is defined as a high level of overall physical,
mental, and social functioning; a general adaptive-maintenance level of daily functioning; and the
absence of illness, or the presence of efforts leading to the absence of illness.

Nursing
Nursing is a human science of persons and human health-illness experiences mediated by professional,
personal, scientific, esthetic, and ethical human care transactions.