The Metaparadigm of Nursing and Jean Watson's Theory of Caring essentially contain the same four concepts, or components, in their structural design. These four concepts are the person, the environment, overall health and nursing. The Metaparadigm of Nursing's definitions of these four concepts are extremely straight forward, simple, and literal. Jean Watson's Theory of Caring has a deeper definition of each concept, and focuses on the spiritual and philosophical features that each one embodies. While these four components are the structure on which each of these theories is built, specifically they both represent the whole person and how the world around them also contributes to their health.

The proof that Jean Watson did in fact theory resides in that her theory has the same core concepts that Fawcett used to build the Metaparadigm of Nursing, and if the four central concepts are what define what makes a theory, then Watson has achieved this in her Theory of Caring. One of the four concepts that reinforces Watson's Theory as a theory is the concept of person. A human being is so much more than the skin on their muscles and bones, they are a product of spirituality, society, environment and so much more. Watson's Theory embodies the person as more than human, they are the culmination of all the factors that create that human into an individual. As an individual, that person needs nursing care that is catered to their personal needs, and as a nurse we should be able to assist that individual to reaching their highest and most healthy self.  

 

Needs a peer response from a student nurse practitioner's point of view with reference

A rich body of theory has been developed to guide the discipline of nursing. One of the theories is Watson's Human Caring Theory. This theory, founded in the notions of a holistic perspective and transpersonal psychology, has a deep value system built on a continuing ethical-epistemic-ontological and a unitary worldview. Caring is the core concept in nursing. Caring includes care for and care about clients. The first of these two main domains in holistic nursing related to professional knowledge and expertise and the second to psychological and spiritual consideration of clients as a PERSON. One way to ensure that caring is central to the patients' experience is to endorse Watson's theory of human caring as the basis or a guide for nursing practice. To be able to perform a caring action, nurses need an artistic as well as a scientific knowledge and expertise in understanding the totally of the patient as a person. As a future nurse practitioner one must be equip with knowledge on deeper understanding of human nature, for the optimization of care.

Caring behavior by nurses can contribute to the satisfaction and well-being of patients and is more than only the performance of the healthcare organizations or specific type of professional and human-to-human contact. When caring is not present, non-caring consequences and dissatisfaction with care, where the person feels like an object, can occur. Caring has to be done in practice and research (Watson, 2009), as lack of caring is a major threat to health care quality.

Moreover, Watson pointed out that caring is "the moral ideal of nursing whereby the end is protection, enhancement, and preservation of human dignity" (Watson, 1999, p. 29). Trustful and respectful interpersonal relationships are extremely important for preserving human dignity. Watson's carative factors are seen as nurse-patient interactions and modalities that can be employed to support and enhance the experience of the actual caring occasion. These carative factors are described as consisting of: cultivating the practice of loving-kindness and equanimity toward self and others as foundational to caritas consciousness; being authentically present; enabling, sustaining and honoring the faith, hope and the deep belief system and the inner-subjective life world of the self and of the other; cultivating one's own spiritual practices and transpersonal self, going beyond the ego-self; developing and sustaining a helping-trusting, caring relationship; being present to, and supportive of, the expression of positive and negative feelings; creatively use the self and all ways of knowing as part of the caring process; engaging in the artistry of caritas nursing; engaging in genuine teaching-learning experiences that attend to the unity of being and subjective meaning; attempting to stay within the other's frame of reference; creating a healing environment at all levels; administering sacred nursing acts of caring-healing by tending to basic human needs; opening and attending to spiritual or mysterious and existential unknowns of life and death (Watson, 2008).

Furthermore, patient satisfaction is one of the established outcome indicators of the quality and the efficiency of healthcare systems and also considered as a nursing-sensitive patient outcome, which is significantly impacted by nursing interventions. Satisfaction is related to patients' safety because it influences further health service utilization and the level of patients' adherence or compliance with prescribed treatments, regimens, and recommendations. Caring can be viewed as an antecedent or a consequence of safety in one's everyday life and health care. The interpersonal contact with nurses is central to patients' experience, hence the latter is a crucial determinant of the overall experience of care. A relationship was found between patient satisfaction and patient-perceived nurse caring. We can say that patient satisfaction is a response to nurse caring.

In conclusion, as a student nurse practitioner this theories provided knowledge on the deeper meaning of nursing. We all know about the holistic approach and over and above all that our top priority is the patient in maximizing our skills in rendering our care. Deeper understanding about the patient as a person will greatly guide us future nurse practitioners especially in quality care and effective nursing interventions. With this in mind, it will also be of great help in medical ethics considering the ethical issues in beneficence, autonomy and the like. Also issues of discrimination and respect in culture and religion will be guided in such theories of Watson, in taking patient a person, a valued entity in health service. The relationships, the understanding will lead to a healthy progressive health care environment. Providing quality care for all.