Integrating Human Caring into Basic Nursing Education | Dr. Jean Watson

Summary

This transcript discusses integrating human caring theory into nursing education, emphasizing the importance of a caring science curriculum. It highlights the need to balance technical competencies with caring competencies, fostering an environment of kindness and caring relationships. The speaker introduces the concept of 'praxis,' where knowledge is integrated into personal practice, and discusses the role of emancipatory pedagogies in transforming nursing education.

Takeaways

• 📚 **Caring Science Curriculum**: The speaker emphasizes integrating caring science into nursing education, suggesting it's as crucial as technical skills.
• 🌟 **Definition of Curriculum**: The true essence of curriculum is the relationship between faculty, staff, and students, not just the content taught.
• 🧑‍🏫 **Environment for Learning**: A caring and kind environment in the classroom is essential for producing practitioners who can translate theory into practice.
• 🔄 **Classroom to Clinical**: What happens in the classroom mirrors the clinical setting, indicating the need for a caring curriculum in education.
• 🤖 **Beyond Technical Competencies**: Nursing education should not only focus on technical skills but also on the art of human caring.
• 💡 **Rethinking Skills Labs**: The idea to transform skills labs into 'arts labs' that teach the artistry of humanity and the Ten Caritas Processes.
• 🌐 **Transition from Content-Driven**: There's a push for a shift from a content-driven curriculum to one that values human caring and relationships.
• 🔄 **Knowledge vs. Understanding**: The speaker distinguishes between giving data, imparting knowledge, and achieving understanding through personal practice.
• 🌱 **Emancipatory Pedagogies**: Introducing new teaching methods that encourage a more holistic and humanistic approach to education.
• 🔑 **Ingredients for Caring Science**: Dr. Nia Nadine's four key ingredients for a caring science curriculum: practice, modeling, authentic dialog, and affirming students' ethical ideals.
• 🌿 **Caring Moments**: The importance of caring moments in both the classroom and clinical settings for transformative learning experiences.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the discussion in the transcript?

The main focus of the discussion is on integrating human caring theory into nursing education, specifically through a caring science curriculum that emphasizes the balance between technical competencies and the art of human caring.

What is the definition of curriculum as discussed in the transcript?

In the transcript, curriculum is defined as the relationship between faculty and students, and it emphasizes the importance of creating a learning environment based on caring relationships, kindness, and loving kindness.

Why is it important to integrate caring science into nursing education?

Integrating caring science into nursing education is important to ensure that practitioners not only learn technical competencies but also understand how to translate theory into practice for patients, fostering an environment of caring in both the classroom and clinical settings.

What is the role of the Ten Caritas Processes in the caring science curriculum?

The Ten Caritas Processes are a part of the caring science curriculum that should be implemented and lived out in both the classroom and clinical settings to enhance the practice of human caring.

How does the caring science curriculum differ from a traditional content-driven curriculum?

A caring science curriculum focuses on relationships, human caring phenomena, and the language and practice of caring, whereas a traditional content-driven curriculum is more focused on delivering data and facts without necessarily fostering an environment of caring.

What are the four major ingredients identified by Dr. Nia Nadine's for a caring science curriculum?

The four major ingredients identified by Dr. Nia Nadine's for a caring science curriculum are: practice of caring, modeling to help students become their best selves, authentic dialog for processing knowledge, and affirming students' highest ethical ideals.

How does the concept of 'praxis' relate to the caring science curriculum?

'Praxis' in the context of the caring science curriculum refers to the integration of knowing, being, and doing as one art act in the moment with another human being, which is informed by values, consciousness, intentionality, theories, and approaches to knowledge.

What is the significance of the discipline of nursing in the caring science curriculum?

The discipline of nursing holds the values, theories, and practices that guide nursing education and practice. It is crucial for informing the caring science curriculum to ensure that nursing education aligns with the timeless values and theories of the profession.

How can educators introduce caring science as a framework in their classrooms?

Educators can introduce caring science as a framework by creating an environment where students practice caring, modeling authenticity, engaging in authentic dialog, and affirming students' ethical ideals.

What is the role of alternative ways of knowing in the caring science curriculum?

Alternative ways of knowing, such as personal, intuitive, aesthetic, and empirical knowledge, are integrated into the caring science curriculum to provide a more holistic approach to understanding and teaching nursing, which enhances the human dimensions of care.

How does the caring science curriculum impact the culture of nursing education?

The caring science curriculum transforms the culture of nursing education by shifting from a traditional, content-driven approach to one that values relationships, human caring, and alternative ways of knowing, leading to a more empathetic and holistic educational experience.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Integrating Caring Science into Nursing Education

The speaker begins by expressing pleasure in discussing the integration of human caring theory into nursing education. They introduce the concept of a caring science curriculum, emphasizing the importance of relationships between faculty, staff, and students. The speaker argues that a sterile, robotic approach to education can produce practitioners who lack the ability to translate theory into practice. They stress the need for a curriculum that balances technical competencies with the literacy of caring, suggesting a shift from a content-driven model to one that values the art of human presence and the Ten Caritas Processes. The speaker also introduces the idea of reframing skills labs to focus on the artistry of humanity, and discusses the importance of emancipatory pedagogies and the work of Dr. Nia Nadine's in caring science curriculums.

05:01

🌟 Creating a Caring Environment in Education

In the second paragraph, the speaker delves into the specifics of creating a caring environment within the classroom. They discuss the practice of caring among students, the importance of modeling, authentic dialogue, and affirming students' highest ethical ideals. The speaker highlights the work of Dr. Noddings and her identification of key ingredients for a caring curriculum. These include practicing caring within the classroom community, modeling in a way that encourages students to become their best selves, facilitating authentic dialogue for knowledge processing, and affirming students' ethical ideals. The speaker also touches on the concept of praxis, which is the integration of knowing, being, and doing in a caring moment, and how this translates from education to clinical practice.

10:05

🛠 The Role of Nursing Discipline in Education and Practice

The final paragraph focuses on the role of the nursing discipline in informing education and practice. The speaker discusses how the discipline holds the values and theories that guide nursing practice. They emphasize the importance of using theory to change practice and the need to incorporate multiple ways of knowing, including personal, intuitive, aesthetic, and empirical knowledge. The speaker also addresses the parallel between what happens in education and the clinical setting, suggesting that a structure informed by the discipline and theory is essential for effective nursing education and practice. The speaker concludes by reiterating the importance of understanding how theory and the discipline of nursing can and must inform education to change practice.

Keywords

💡Caring Science

Caring Science refers to a body of knowledge that focuses on the study of caring relationships and practices in healthcare. In the video, it is described as a curriculum that emphasizes the importance of caring relationships between faculty, staff, and students, and how these relationships can translate into clinical practice. The speaker discusses how a caring science curriculum should balance technical competencies with the 'literacy of caring' to produce practitioners who can translate theory into practice for patients.

💡Human Caring Theory

Human Caring Theory is a theoretical framework that guides nursing education and practice, focusing on the importance of caring in human relationships. The video frames the discussion around integrating this theory into nursing education to create an environment that fosters caring relationships, which is essential for effective patient care. The theory is used to guide the curriculum and is seen as a way to ensure that nurses are not just technically competent but also emotionally attuned to their patients' needs.

💡Curriculum

In the context of the video, curriculum is defined as the relationship between faculty and students, which goes beyond just the content taught. It emphasizes the importance of creating a learning environment based on caring relationships. The speaker argues that a curriculum should not be sterile and robotic but should foster an environment that prepares students to be caring practitioners, reflecting what happens in the classroom to what happens in the clinical setting.

💡Ten Caritas Processes

The Ten Caritas Processes are a set of principles derived from Human Caring Theory that guide nursing practice. In the video, they are mentioned as a way to reframe skills labs into 'arts labs,' teaching the 'artistry of our humanity.' These processes include being present, implementing, and living out caring behaviors both in the classroom and clinical settings, emphasizing the integration of caring into every aspect of nursing education and practice.

💡Authentic Dialog

Authentic Dialog refers to open and honest communication that allows for the processing of knowledge and understanding. In the video, it is highlighted as a crucial component of a caring science curriculum, where students are encouraged to ask questions and engage in discussions about what they don't understand. This approach fosters a learning environment where students feel safe to explore and deepen their understanding, which is directly applicable to clinical practice where effective communication is key.

💡Emancipatory Pedagogies

Emancipatory Pedagogies are teaching methods that aim to empower students and promote critical thinking. The video discusses how introducing these pedagogies can transform the classroom environment, moving away from a traditional, content-driven approach to one that is more student-centered and focused on human caring. This includes reconfiguring the classroom layout to a circle, which facilitates more personal and engaging interactions among students.

💡Praxis

Praxis, as mentioned in the video, refers to the integration of knowing, being, and doing as one artful act in the moment with another human being. It is informed by values, consciousness, intentionality, and theories. In the context of nursing, praxis is about living out the principles of caring in practice, ensuring that education translates directly into authentic, caring interactions with patients.

💡Discipline of Nursing

The Discipline of Nursing encompasses the theories, values, and practices that guide nursing as a profession. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of this discipline in informing nursing education and practice. It is what holds the 'eternal, timeless values' that cannot be substituted and is crucial for shaping the curriculum and influencing both educational structure and clinical practice.

💡Epistemologies

Epistemologies refer to different ways of knowing or understanding the world. The video discusses the importance of expanding epistemologies in nursing education, which includes personal, intuitive, aesthetic, and empirical ways of knowing. This approach allows students to explore nursing phenomena from multiple perspectives, enriching their understanding and ability to address the human dimensions of patient care.

💡Caring Moments

Caring Moments are instances where educators or practitioners demonstrate care and empathy towards students or patients. In the video, the speaker highlights the importance of including these moments in both the classroom and clinical settings. These moments are transformative and can significantly impact students' ethical ideals and their approach to patient care, illustrating the practical application of caring theory in real-world scenarios.

💡Authenticity

Authenticity in the video refers to the genuine and sincere expression of oneself in teaching and learning. It is about educators modeling their best selves and helping students to do the same, rather than trying to emulate someone else. Authenticity is key to creating a caring and supportive learning environment, which is essential for translating theory into practice and fostering a deep understanding of the caring aspects of nursing.

Highlights

Integrating human caring theory into nursing education is crucial for developing a caring science curriculum.

Caring science curriculum focuses on the relationship between faculty and students, emphasizing the importance of a caring environment for learning.

A sterile, remote, robotic teaching approach can produce practitioners who struggle to translate theory into practice.

The classroom environment should mirror the clinical setting to ensure the translation of caring theory into practice.

A caring science curriculum balances technical competencies with the literacy of caring.

Skills labs should be reframed as 'arts labs' to teach the artistry of humanity and the Ten Caritas Processes.

Caring science curriculum is a subtle but significant transition from content-driven to authentic, human caring theory-guided education.

Information and content are not synonymous with knowledge; understanding and integrating knowledge into personal practice is key.

Emancipatory pedagogies, such as circle classrooms, can foster a more caring and authentic educational environment.

Dr. Nia Nadine's work on caring science curriculums identifies four major ingredients for a caring science framework.

Practicing caring in the classroom is essential for translating these practices into clinical practice.

Modeling in a caring science curriculum is about helping students become their best selves, not imitating others.

Authentic dialog is necessary for students to process knowledge and ask questions in a safe environment.

Affirming students' highest ethical ideals can be transformative and is a key aspect of a caring curriculum.

Caring moments in the classroom are as important as those in clinical settings and contribute to praxis.

Praxis is the integration of knowing, being, and doing in the moment with another human being.

A caring science curriculum is transformative for faculty, staff, and the educational culture.

Emancipatory pedagogies introduce art, humanities, and alternative ways of knowing into nursing education.

Understanding the discipline of nursing and how it informs education and practice is crucial for a caring science curriculum.

The discipline of nursing holds the values and theories that guide practice and education.

Multiple ways of knowing should be integrated into nursing education to address the human dimensions of healthcare.

The transition to a caring science curriculum involves bringing in expanded epistemologies and understanding the influence of the discipline on clinical settings.

Transcripts

Well, it is my pleasure to join you again.

And this time I will be talking about

how to integrate human caring theory into nursing education.

However, I'm going to frame it as really how to consider

a caring science curriculum, which is exactly the same thing.

But I'm using different terminology, both about theory guided

caring science curriculum, but also caring science as a curriculum guide.

Now, what do we mean by what is a caring science

curriculum or what is the definition of curriculum?

Actually, the true definition of curriculum is really

the relationship between faculty and students, between staff and students.

So when we think about content and about all the facts

that we have to teach and all the learning that has to occur,

if we do that in a sterile, remote, robotic way

without being attentive to creating an environment for learning

which is based upon caring relationships and kindness and loving kindness

as we know from the theory, then you can actually create practitioners

who do not know how to translate theory into practice for patients.

So what happens in the classroom

is happening in the clinical.

So if we don't find ways to introduce

caring curriculum into nursing education,

we will find that we're only teaching technical competencies.

And so a caring science curriculum, a theory guided human caring curriculum

has to pay as much attention to helping students to learn

about the phenomena of human caring, the language of human caring,

the practice of human caring

as they do for technology.

So the competencies of caring, or what I would refer to

as literacy of caring has to be balanced with the technology.

So in this model, you could actually begin to think about

all those skills labs that we have and think about creatively.

How would you reframe those skills labs?

that are all focused on technology and reframe them

so their arts labs like teaching about the artistry of our humanity,

how to be present, how to implement and live out

these Ten Caritas Processes

within a given moment in the classroom as well as in the clinical setting,

as part of a new laboratory model of learning about our humanity.

So this too is part of a very subtle but significant transition

to move from a content driven curriculum, which then is very sterile

and is really based upon giving people data.

And in this understanding, we begin to reveal

that giving people knowledge or giving people data or information

is not the same as knowledge.

Information is not knowledge, content is not knowledge per say.

Content is just facts

content like that

is not necessarily knowledge and knowledge.

Giving people knowledge is not necessarily understanding.

So understanding is not also

taking it to the level of integrating it into the personal practice.

So it becomes the students knowledge, personal knowledge for them

that they take this content,

that you've given them, these facts, all this understanding, but take it into a

make it there so they can live it out and give voice and language to it.

That's a whole different education model of new forms of pedagogy.

So in this kind of curriculum, we begin to introduce

what's referred to as emancipatory pedagogies.

You might recreate your classroom so you have a circle

instead of a big auditorium with all the lines and the rows

lined up where people do not see each other.

And some of the foundational work in caring science curriculums

has been identified by my colleague and scholar, a

beautiful person who with whom I've worked

Dr. Nia Nadine's, and she was the Dean of Education

at Stanford University, and she began to do work on caring

and really the ethics of caring from a very perspective of

based upon a caring ethic in relationships.

And in her work, she described about four major ingredients.

If you're an educator

and you would like to introduce caring science as a framework.

There's certain principles and guidance that you can begin to pay attention to.

One of them, she says, of course, requires practice.

So when you are introducing a caring science curriculum

in the classroom,

you create an environment where the students are practicing caring

and the Ten Caritas Process among themselves,

the way they teach to respond to each other, the way they treat each other,

the way they teach to respond to each other, the way they treat each other,

the way in which you create a community of caring within the classroom.

So you're practicing in the classroom.

What you're also going to be able to take out

and translate directly into clinical practice.

Second ingredient that she identified

has to do with modeling.

So we always hear about role modeling.

But in this model, we're not talking about role modeling in the sense of trying

to get somebody to be like somebody else and role model to be like another person.

But this is the educator's approach to modeling

that helps that student, that other to become their best self model,

their best self of who they are, the authenticity of their being

and becoming rather than trying to be like somebody else.

And this takes a very special way of being in relation

you would actually live out some of the character's processes

so that you can actually be authentic with a student and helping them define

and their best way to model themselves, to learn to practice caring.

Another ingredient

of the caring curriculum that's been identified by Noddings

has to do with what she referred to as authentic dialog.

We can give all these facts and all this content

and all this knowledge, but if there are not opportunities

for students to process that knowledge, to have authentic dialog,

and understand that any question that anybody needs to ask,

it's really like a sacred act that any question is sacred.

And we need to create space where students can feel safe

and ask questions about any parts of what they don't understand.

And then you have an authentic dialog among themselves and each other.

We learn from each other, and we're doing this in a practice

setting where we're actually learning, caring and living caring in the practice

of the classroom as well as what can be translated directly into practice.

Likewise, the last aspect of what she identified,

which is a beautiful concept and it's the one I love the most,

she says.

We have a responsibility to affirm

or confirm for the student

their highest ethical ideal

for themselves, even if they can't see it for themselves.

At the moment.

So if you have a student who's struggling, who's suffering,

they might be really hard on themselves.

But if you can help to hold them in their highest ethical ideal of who they are

and who they wish to become, it actually can be transformative for them.

And it's a life changing event.

This would to be an example of a caring moment.

The caring moments need to be included in the classroom

as they are in a patient nurse situation in the clinical setting.

So anything you teach in the education is going to be transferred directly over

if students are exposed to a very authoritarian, professional

distancing model in education for the teaching and learning.

They're going to go right into clinical setting and start doing that authoritarian

professional distancing with patients and be this objective person

rather than be authentically present.

Living out the Ten Caritas Processes that flow

from education to practice as one art act.

This is referred to as praxis.

So in my work of Caring science and the theory of human caring

in education, in practice, in administration, in policy,

all of this has to do with really living this out in entirely different way.

As one art act is referred to

in my latest book as Praxis.

Praxis meaning the knowing, being, and doing

as one art act in that moment with another human being and praxis.

The concept of praxis is informed practice.

It's informed by your values, it's informed

by your consciousness, it's informed by your intentionality.

It is informed by your theories and your approach to knowledge

and what counts as knowledge.

Empirical knowledge alone is not enough knowledge for us to understand and teach.

We have to allow for all ways of knowing, as I've mentioned earlier.

So this whole transition from a traditional content

driven curriculum to an authentic

human caring theory guided curriculum is transformative for the faculty,

for the staff, for the culture, as well as for the students.

This allows for these emancipatory pedagogies

which brings in art and humanities

and film and all sorts of alternative ways

of knowing that we have not systematically built into nursing education.

The other thing I would like to just emphasize in terms

of the framework for a caring science curriculum has to do

with how we begin to understand the discipline of nursing,

which is helping to inform our education as well as our practice.

The discipline is what holds the values for the profession.

The discipline is what

those eternal, timeless values that cannot be substituted for this.

The discipline is what holds the theories.

It doesn't have to be my theory, it has multiple theories.

In nursing or guiding our practice.

But if you're using a theory in education or you're using a theory in practice,

you're going to be changing your practice

because you're going to be able to see things differently.

You're going to be able to do things differently,

whether it's in the classroom or whether it's in the clinical setting.

So the other part of this transition is then to bring in multiple ways of knowing.

For example, you can take any assignment, any clinical assignment,

any medical diagnosis, any treatment model that needed to be attended to

for the learning.

And you can invite students to explore it through their personal ways of knowing,

through their intuitive ways of knowing, through art and esthetic ways of knowing

through empirical, technical, medical ways of knowing that phenomena.

Or you can have them explore it in any of these

expanded ways, what I refer to as expanded epistemologies

And then it opens up an entirely new way of us

addressing the human dimensions, humanity,

all those vicissitudes of human existence that patients are going through.

Students are going through.

And we have the parallel that what's happening in

the education is likewise happening in the clinical setting.

They're basically one and the same.

But we need to have the structure

and the understanding of how the discipline is informing our work,

how our theories are informing our educational structure

and how it influences indirectly and directly into the clinical setting.

So I hope this is a way to summarize

the importance of understanding how theory

how the discipline of nursing is and can

and must start informing our education so we can change practice.

Thank you very much for your time.