Examining Swanson's Theory of Caring

Examining the Theory of Caring

Swanson's (1993) Theory of Caring is structured around five principles that encompass the overall definition of caring in nursing practice. This theory states that caring revolves around five categories: knowing, being with, doing for, enabling, and maintaining belief. When applied to nursing practice, each of these five categories can fuel the caregiver's attitude and improve overall patient well-being. In nursing, as well as other areas caring can be defined as, "a nurturing way of relating to a valued other toward whom one feels a personal sense of commitment and responsibility'. Upon examination, the five processes of Swanson's Theory of Caring can be used in nursing practice to achieve an enhanced one-on-one relationship with patients, and improve overall patient well-being.

Knowing

The first caring process of the Theory of Caring is 'knowing'. As it applies to this theory, knowing is defined as "striving to understand an event as it has meaning in the life of the other" (Swanson, 1991 pp. 163). This category of caring enables the nursing professional to not make assumptions about any specific patient, center the patient being cared for, and conduct thorough assessments of a particular patient (Swanson, 1991). Since no two patients, needs or cases are the same, obtaining an understanding of the significance of each patients experience with sickness or disease sets the nurse or caregiver up for establishing a one-on-one relationship with each patient. Through knowing, nurses can identify with patients' wishes, and personal desires to be understood in difficult situations (Jansson, 2011). A knowing caregiver is skilled in such areas as providing empathy and being understanding in each s...

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...ain the caring-healing practice that attracted them to the profession.

Works Cited

Jansson, C., & Adolfsson, A. (2011). Application of swanson's middle range caring theory in sweden after miscarriage. International Journal of Clinical Medicine, (2), 102-109.

Swanson, K. M. (1991). Empirical development of a middle range theory of caring. Nursing research, 40(3), 161-165.

Swanson, K. M. (1993). Nursing as Informed Caring for the Well‐Being of Others. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 25(4), 352-357.

Watson, J. (2006). Caring theory as an ethical guide to administrative and clinical practices. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 30(1), 48-55.

Watson, J., & Foster, R. (2003). The Attending Nurse Caring Model®: integrating theory, evidence and advanced caring–healing therapeutics for transforming professional practice. Journal of clinical nursing, 12(3), 360-365.