Theories of Caring

Running head: THORIES OF CARING
THORIES OF CARING
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THORIES OF CARING
A personal story of caring:
Once I got the opportunity of caring for an old woman named Sarah who was 78 years
old. She was suffering from a very poor quality life due to multiple unmanaged chronic health
conditions like obesity, diabetes, foot ulcer, weakened vision, osteoarthritis as well as sleep
apnea. She had recently had a fall which had left her with skin tears and many bruises. Her
family had admitted her to centers centers so that she can recover from these ill health
conditions. Immediately after her admission, diagnostic tests were done and various
interventions were applied to her. However, I noticed closely that Sarah was not all participatory
in the care interventions and was completely withdrawn. She neither responded to any healthcare
professional nor had any queries about her health. I tried to apply the best evidence based care
services that could be provided for her well-being and recovery of her health but not much
improvement was noticed. I realized that it is important for me to understand the main reason for
her behavior so that I can include her in the treatment process. Gradually, I started to
communicate with her extensively about various formal as well as non-formal topics. The topics
ranged from her favorite dishes to her favorite films and even about her favorite destinations and
others. She gradually started opening up and in course of time we developed a close rapport with
her. She started trusting me and revealed much important information that helped us in
modifying the care plans and aligning them to her needs. I showed her empathy and compassion
that made her believe that I am genuinely trying to help her to overcome her health concerns. It
was after the development of therapeutic relationship with the patient, she told me that she was
frustrated with her help and had lost hope that she would ever get better. Therefore, she was not
coordinating with the professionals. I made her achieve that she can live better quality life
through proper lifestyle modification and adherence to medications and maintained lifestyle. She

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THORIES OF CARING
was happy and started adhering with the treatment. Gradually she was seen to show progress in
her health.
Concepts of caring and its links with nursing practices:
Jean Watson theory of nursing and caring had defined nursing as the human science of
persons as well as human health-illness experiences that can be mediated by personal,
professional, scientific as well as esthetic and ethical human acre transactions. Her theory has
been based in the importance of values of kindness, concern, and love for self as well as that of
the others and even respect for spiritual dimensions of the patients (Jones, 2018). Nurses need to
accept the patients as they are develop an emotional connection with them and be in the moment
when they interact and care for the patients. The nursing process should be committed in
protecting and enhancing the human dignity at the same time respecting the needs, wishes, rituals
and routines of the patients (Sitzman, 2018). Nurses need to be establishing harmony with the
patient through effective rapport development where the patient feels cared and loved. While
caring for Sarah, I also ensured that I could establish a strong emotional connection with her and
helped her feeling homely in the healthcare environment. I showed her empathy and compassion
making her believe that I understand her suffering and this made her feel pleased and satisfied.
She started trusting me and revealed why she was upset initially. All these helped in
development of the treatment care plans and her health outcomes as well.
Person centered care theory mainly advises the nursing professionals to encourage
patients in actively participating in their own care process and take decisions regarding the care
services that needs to be provided to the patient (Kogan et al., 2016). It mainly includes
providing the patient with the full authority to work along with the healthcare teams being in the