Nursing and Care Theories

Two of the major theories of nursing have been published by Jean Watson and by John Paley, who each have taken markedly distinct approaches to conceptualizing nursing care in a theoretical construct. Paley looks at some of the darker elements of nursing, using frames of "slave morality" and applying Nietzschean ideologies to the manifestation of contemporary nursing theory. Jean Watson has approached the theoretical foundation of nursing from a very different perspective over a long career focusing on the compassionate element of nursing care as it applies to human and humane experiences in care and loss.

Jean Watson, who hails from West Virginia, was educated at the University of Colorado and was appointed Distinguished Professor of Nursing and endowed Chair in Caring Science at the same university. Dr. Watson's degrees are in nursing and psychiatric-mental health nursing and PhD in educational psychology and counseling. Dr. Watson...
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