Caring for Older Adults: Practice Guided by Watson’s Caring-Healing Model

Abstract

Caring for older people and listening attentively to what they say about themselves and their varied health situations, especially in relation to quality of life and peace of mind, body, and soul, are important matters to nurses aligned withWatson’s caring-healing theory. Assumptions and key concepts of Watson’s framework are described with examples that illustrate how a nursing framework has shaped the author’s advanced nursing practice. Some of the key concepts discussed include intersubjectivity, transpersonal caring, spirituality, and caring moments. Watson’s framework of caring-healing is shown to inform practice, education, and research.