Measuring Caring: International Research on Caritas as Healing

by Jean Watson (Editor)

Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring (Caritas) is now used in approximately 300 health care institutions in the United States and other institutions worldwide. This is the first international compendium of Caritas research, presenting the findings of 41 studies from 7 countries. The book examines similarities and differences in the ways in which each country applies Watson's Theory and documents the outcomes of these interventions. It addresses relationships between nurses and patients, nurses and their colleagues, self-care, and how Caritas is used to resolve outcome issues system-wide.

The book discusses at length eight different Caring Factor surveys, primary research tools for those using the Caritas process, which identify constructs that either support or impede caring in multiple settings. The first section focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of Caritas and presents seven adaptations of the Caring Factor Survey. Section II addresses measurements and methods for facilitating a caring relationship between nurse and patient. Measurements and interventions to facilitate Caritas in a variety of settings is the focus of Section III, and the final sections address the international measurement and international comparisons of Caritas. The volume will be an important resource for nurse leaders, educators, administrators in academia including unit managers, and for hospitals with or seeking Magnet status. The book serves as a complement to Watson's Assessing and Measuring Caring in Nursing and Health Care and Creating a Caring Science An Emancipatory Pedagogy for Nursing.

A co-publication with the Watson Caring Institute, this

Presents cutting-edge tools derived from the Caring Factor Survey for measuring caring in multiple contextsDiscusses similarities and differences in caring contexts across nationsDocuments outcomes of Caritas in varied settings in the United States and internationallyAddresses nurse-patient and nurse-colleague relationships, self-care, and resolution of system-wide outcome issues

735 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Dr. Jean Watson is Distinguished Professor of Nursing and holds an endowed Chair in Caring Science at the University of Colorado Denver and Anschutz Medical Center Campus. She is founder of the original Center for Human Caring in Colorado and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

She is a widely published author and recipient of several awards and honors, including an international Kellogg Fellowship in Australia, a Fulbright Research Award in Sweden.

Clinical nurses and academic programs throughout the world use her published works on the philosophy and theory of human caring and the art and science of caring in nursing.

As author/co-author of over 14 books on caring, her latest books range from empirical measurements of caring, to new postmodern philosophies of caring and healing. Her books have been American Journal of Nursing books of the year awards, seek to bridge paradigms as well as point toward transformative models for the 21st century. In 2008 Dr. Watson created a non-profit foundation: Watson Caring Science Institute, to further the work of Caring Science in the world (www.watsoncaringscience.org).