Healing Relationships: Rediscovering the Caring Science of Nursing

Estrellita Karsh, who generously funds the annual Karsh Visiting Professorship, joins Jean Watson before the event.

As the Karsh Visiting Professor in Nursing, Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, welcomed everyone to the annual Karsh lecture with a unique way to help attendees approach the lecture with open minds and hearts: the use of a singing bowl from Nepal calibrated to the vibrations of the human heart. As she touched the bowl, bringing from it a soothing sound that reverberated throughout the Bornstein Amphitheater, she invited nurses to open their hearts and be fully present. 

"Take us back to the heart of our humanity and of our profession," she said.

With that opening, Watson encouraged nurses to think not just in terms of change, but in terms of an overall transformation of the profession of nursing. 

 "According to the Institute of Medicine, change refers to an improved version of what you've already done," she said. "That's the mindset of the traditional system. But transformation is something you dream up; it involves everyone in co-creating a totally new system through innovation, courage and risk-taking. This transformation starts within each of us."

Over the next hour, she spoke about the caring science of nursing and ways that nurses can open themselves to create a healing connection with their patients. 

Watson referenced Florence Nightingale's statement that nursing is a calling. "It is a covenant that this profession has with humanity," Watson said. "It is not a customer-service profession."

She also explained that healing is an inner process, not just an outer treatment, and that it is cultivated through a "biogenic" relationship - one that is life-giving and life-receiving for those involved. "We're working with the life force of another person, and we never know how we're affecting it," she said. 

During the lecture, Watson reviewed the 10 "Caritas," or caring processes (at right), to help nurses transform the care they provide by opening up and creating healing relationships with their patients.

The first step in the Caritas/caring process is to practice kindness and equanimity with ourselves so we can cultivate it with others. "How do we do that?" she asked. "By deep breathing and bringing feelings of generosity, gratitude, compassion to your heart. Then, gently radiate those feelings beyond you."

Many nurses practice this before entering a patient's room to help enable the faith and hope of their patient, she said.

Another caring practice refers to allowing the expression of both positive and negative feelings. "Listening to another person's story might be one of the greatest healing gifts we can give," she said, noting that nurses can often help not by trying to fix, but by simply listening.

The 10^th caring practice calls for nurses to allow for "mystery and miracle," to accept that we don't have all the answers. "This is what allows for transformation," Watson said.

Jean Watson uses a singing bowl from Nepal to help nurses approach her lecture with open minds and hearts.

About Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN
Jean Watson is a distinguished professor and dean emerita at the University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing and Anschutz Medical Center, where she held an endowed Chair in Caring Science for 16 years. She is the founder of the original Center for Human Caring in Colorado and is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She previously served as dean of Nursing at the University Health Sciences Center and is a past president of the National League for Nursing. Her latest activities include founder and director of the non-profit Watson Caring Science Institute.