Nursing Theory of Jean Watson
Introduction
Jean Watsons theory of nursing tries to emphasize how nurses should take care of the patients who come to them and also addresses how the care they give transforms life of patients to better health and assist the patients stay a healthy life. It also expounds on the primary purpose of nursing which is caring for patients. According to Watson care for patients is not generational instead it is developed as a culture in the field of nursing in order to cope with the surrounding atmospheric conditions. Caring is very much significant to patients as it promotes growth; it creates a sense of acceptance in a person and also promotes the health of a person making him or her build her future. As she came up with her theory of nursing Jean Watson made several assumptions which are; caring comprises of factors that help satisfy human needs caring is only demonstrated interpersonally caring promotes health and growth in families nurses should practice caring caring creates a sense of acceptance in a person and builds a person to become a different person in the future.
Major concepts of Jean Watsons theory
The Jean Watsons theory of nursing has four major basic concepts which influence and determine nursing practice. These are;
Human being: this concept is used to explain the person in who is being cared for nurtured which nurses are able to understand and respect as they give him or her the care required in order to build a healthy life. This person is supposed to get full assistance from the nurse that is a philosophical view of a person.
The human being is viewed as more important and significant than a combination of his or her other parts. This is because according to Watson a human being is not an object he or she should be highly valued by the nurses and given the right care that he or she deserves.
Health: According to Jean Watsons theory of nursing the health a human being is defined by several elements; general physical social psychological and mental function getting adapted and maintaining to the daily functioning and the ill- free life that has the presence of enough energy and power to overcome illness. The aim of this concept is to assist nurses who come across patients to ensure that patients are given the right care so as to leave them in a healthy state and disease free life.
The other major concept of Jean Watsons theory of nursing is the surrounding environment or the society in general. According to this theory caring for patients is something that has been found in existence in the society because everyone knows caring; it is not generational but transferred by professional culture in such a way that one is able to cope with the surrounding environment.
Lastly Jean Watsons theory of nursing emphasizes that nursing should be aimed at promotion of the health of an individual by preventing the particular disease or illness from its occurrence giving maximum care to the sick patients by giving the right treatment for the particular illness and also ensuring that their health is restored. It really focuses on disease treatment and that the health care of an individual is central to the nursing practice.

In this final concept nursing is defined as science which involves human beings and health illness experiences that are mediated by professional personal scientific esthetic and ethical human transactions (Watson 2009).
Jean Watsons theory contains some major elements that try to explain it and will be exemplified in a section of this paper. The three major elements are; carative factors the transpersonal and interpersonal caring relationship between the nurse and the patient and the session or the occasion of caring.
The carative factors are used as a guide for nursing where by it gives nurses the understanding that human health should be highly valued in terms of the nursing work the inner life world and the experiences of the people who are served. Some of the carative factors that Watson has discussed in her theory are; having a sense of sensitivity to oneself and others expression of positive and negative feelings having a faith and hope character as a nurse so as to be able to give maximum care to the patients having a problem solving carative procedure as a nurse in order to be able to help the patient assisting the patient with any human needs required being supportive in terms of mental physical psychological and spiritual aspects of life. The transpersonal and interpersonal caring relationship entails total human care which depends on the commitment of the nurse both morally and physically to ensure valued care to the patient. In the last element of caring session Watson says that it is an occasion where the concerned nurse comes together with another person in order to create a session for human nursing care (Karnick 2011).

In her theory jean Watson emphasizes on certain human aspects of the nursing combined with scientific knowledge that ensures a healthy living to the patients.
She explains the entire nursing process that nurses put in to practice to ensure that patients get the right care and that they leave them in a physically fit situation. This has been analyzed with assumptions and carative factors which are explained below. The nurse usually includes the patient family and any other important person in the entire nursing procedure to the extent possible and acknowledges any factors which influence the provision of care by the nurse.
The nursing process includes assessment planning intervention and evaluation in order to help the nurse make the final decision. This is what helps the nurses to solve the problems of their patients in order to get the desired outcome.
In assessment careful observation and diagnosis of the problem is done by the concerned nurse. Through this the nurse is able to gather information about the patient and identifies the specific needs of the patient. In this first step the nurse makes use of the available knowledge in literature to review a certain disease in order to solve the problem. Assessment also involves use of knowledge in certain concepts to formulate and conceptualize a specific framework. All these should be coupled with formulating some hypothesis through definition of variables that assist in problem diagonization and examination.
Secondly careful planning should be done in the overall nursing process. The nurse comes up with a plan of care with the patient to be able to meet the specific needs of the patient in the assessment stage.

This involves determination of what variables will be examined once the disease has been identified. This usually involves an approach using some concepts in order to solve the overall problem. This step helps the nurse to determine what kind of data is to be collected the methods to be used in data collection and from which patient is the data to be collected.
The third step of the nursing process is intervention whereby the plan that has been made in step two is implemented. This is the action stage of the nursing process where the direct action is taken on the identified illness. After the method of data collection method has been identified in the second step the data on the illness is now collected in this step. The nurse collects data on the particular disease so as to be able to know what further action can be taken on the patient as far as nursing care is concerned.
Finally based on the data that is collected from the third step the nurse analyses this data and tries to examine the effects of the interventions in the third step in relation to the data collected. The results are the interpreted and the level to which any positive outcome has been detected is carried out. This is the evaluation stage.
The nursing theory of jean Watson has got some assumptions as they have been put down by Watson in his journal caring science and human caring theory: transforming personal and professional practices of nursing and health care. These assumptions are explained below; caring comprises of factors that help satisfy human needs caring is only demonstrated interpersonally.

Caring promotes health and growth of families caring is more of giving health to a patient than curing since caring is complimentary to curing nurses should practice which creates a sense of acceptance in a person and builds a person to become a different person in the future.
In addition an environment that is demonstrates caring capabilities is the one that assists in decision making of an individual where one can make the best choice for himself or herself.
Jean Watsons theory of nursing has been applied in health care hence contributing to improved health lives of individuals. Below is a research article that exemplifies how the theory has been used in research or practice: The effectiveness of Watsons Caring Model on the quality of life and blood pressure for hypertensive patients
Background information: The ability of nurses to care for hypertensive patients can have a major positive impact in the blood pressure of the particular patient. They help improve the quality of life as well as prolonging the life of the patient. Hypertension is a serious disease and therefore advisable that those people who have been affected receive nursing care in addition to any medication. The nursing care should meet their needs and improve the quality of their lives. Watsons Caring theory model is a nursing approach consistent with needs of hypertensive patients and used in this study to guide both in research and practice.
Aim: This particular research article is meant to show and explain the relationship between the care that is usually given according to jean Watsons theory of nursing and the improved lives of the patients with high blood pressure or hypertension.

Method used to conduct the research: the study involves pretesting and post testing of hypertensive patients meaning that the patients are to be tested before and after the nursing care.
The patients have already being found with hypertension after they have been diagnosed and they had been called in the research involving nursing care. The patients were then given questionnaires after they accepted where they were advised to fill in as the testing was done their blood pressure measured and life quality properly managed. The nurses involved in the research were prepared according to Watsons theory of nursing. All this was the basis of the whole caring procedure used by nurses who were involved in research. These nurses visited the patients after regular periods of time for regular check up of their blood pressure. At the end of the nursing care the quality of life was applied to the different patients and the blood pressures were measured as post test. The results that were obtained indicated that there was a significant difference between the blood pressure in pretest and post test.
Study analysis: There is a clear relationship between the jean Watsons theory and an observable decrease in blood pressure for those patients who were attended according to this theory. The Jean Watsons theory is therefore recommended for use with hypertensive patients in order to decrease the blood pressure and improve the life quality of such patients (Erci et al 2003).
From the research study carried out it is clear that;
Watson provides very useful concepts for nursing practice. In addition Watson uses a couple of theories that are used in the field of nursing.

It can clearly be concluded that the theoretical assumptions in the article are consistent with the study. This is seen from the study analysis which tries to compare the relationship between Watsons theory of nursing with the results obtained after the nursing care was carried out.
There are empirical indicators or research tools that have been used in this article that are derived from the theory.
The Caring Assessment Tool is a research tool that has been theoretically explained and it is as well used in the article. This is the tool that is used to identify the specific needs of the patient. This is only done by the nurse himself or herself. This tool has been used for careful observation and diagnosis of the patients specific disease.
The Caring Ability Inventory: a research tool that has been explained in the third step of the nursing care process. This tool is normally used in collection of data in the intervention stage of the nursing process. The data is collected and the action to be taken is identified.
Another research tool is caring assessment report evaluation. This is a report that is obtained from the analysis of the data that was collected and the effects of the interventions examined in relation to the data collected. This is what is referred to as evaluation in the nursing care process.
Health Care System Nurse Caring Instrument: it is used for taking measurements of the patients satisfaction with the nursing. This is in the final stage of the nursing care process where the level to which any positive outcome detected in the overall process of nursing is carried out.