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Peer Responses: 

Keith posted:

Florence Nightingale is known as the mother of nursing.  Florence’s ideas and theories on nursing were revolutionary at the time but have been proven to have irreplaceable concepts.  

    According to Nursing theory, “The focus of nursing in this model is to alter the patient’s environment in order to affect change in his or her health. The environmental factors that affect health, as identified in the theory, are: fresh air, pure water, sufficient food supplies, efficient drainage, cleanliness of the patient and environment, and light (particularly direct sunlight). If any of these areas is lacking, the patient may experience diminished health. A nurse’s role in a patient’s recovery is to alter the environment in order to gradually create the optimal conditions for the patient’s body to heal itself.” (nursingtheory.org, 2020)

    In comparison to Jean Watson’s theory of caring, her 10 primary caratives were based on the patient as a whole human being.  Each aspect of their being was to be cared for and not just the problem at hand.  By creating an environment that the patient could feel at peace and as comfortable as possible, Watson thought, in conjunction with a medical care plan, that a patient would be able to heal much quicker and have a “whole body and soul transformation”.  

    In contrast, Nightingale’s theory was based on what it is named, the environment.  Nightingale felt if a nurse was able to alter the surroundings to assist the patient with healing that that would be enough for the patient to heal.  While this has great benefit to the patient and sets them up for healing, Watson took the theory in a different path.  Watson found that treating the patient as a whole and allowing them to feel calm, able to express their needs, and caring for them on a personal level made healing even easier.  

    “Transpersonal caring relationships are the foundation of the work; transpersonal conveys a concern for the inner life world and subjective meaning of another who is fully embodied, but transpersonal also goes beyond the ego self and beyond the given moment, reaching to the deeper connections to spirit and with the broader universe. Thus transpersonal caring relationship moves beyond ego-self and radiates to spiritual, even cosmic concerns and connections that tap into healing possibilities and potentials. Transpersonal caring seeks to connect with and embrace the spirit or soul of the other through the processes of caring and healing and being in authentic relation, in the moment.” (Watson Caring Science Institute, 2021)

    Both theories have proven to be timeless in the formation and advancement of nursing.  It would benefit any nurse to be able to pull pieces of these theories to their practice and understand the patient as more than a complaint, but as a whole person.