Nurses’ performance in palliative care: spiritual care in the light of Theory of Human Caring

ABSTRACT Objectives: to analyze nurses’ role in assisting patients in palliative care, with emphasis on the spiritual dimension, in the light of Theory of Human Caring. Methods: this is an exploratory, qualitative study, carried out in a hospital in João Pessoa, Paraíba, between August and December 2019, with 10 nurses. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were used. For analysis, we opted for content analysis. Results: the spiritual dimension of care is contemplated by several religious and spiritual practices. These are respected and encouraged by nurses, although there is difficulty in providing care for the spiritual dimension. Final Considerations: nurses have attitudes consistent with Jean Watson’s Theory and apply the Caritas Process elements during assistance to patients’ spiritual dimension in palliative care.

Human Trafficking: Empowering Healthcare Providers and Community Partners as Advocates for Victims

Human trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery, is a public health crisis and a growing worldwide crime exploiting approximately 40.3 million victims. A decade ago approximately 79% of human trafficking crimes were related to sexual exploitation and 18% were related to forced labor, but more recent reports show approximately 50% and 38%, respectively. Although sexual exploitation continues to make up the majority of human trafficking crimes, forced labor continues to grow at an alarming rate. The purpose of this paper is 2-fold. First, to empower healthcare providers and community volunteers serving potential victims of human trafficking in traditional and nontraditional settings with human trafficking identification training. This education should include the use of a validated human trafficking screening tool and the timely provision of resources. Second, to guide professional nurses in the holistic approach to caring for potential victims of human trafficking. The core values of holistic nursing practice and Watson's Theory of Human Caring are the pillars guiding mindful and authentic nursing care. Merging evidence-based practice with holistic care will boost victim identification and rescue.

Nurses' Living Caritas Processes as Described by Mothers, Fathers, and Grandmothers in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Infants who are born premature require hospitalization in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In this study, 10 parents and seven grandmothers were interviewed with the purpose of exploring their experiences of having a premature infant in the NICU being cared for by nurses whose practice was grounded in Watson's theory of human caring caritas processes. Qualitative descriptive analysis revealed expressions of the caring moment lived as an intentional presence, within the context of the caritas processes to care for the infant and family, with loving-kindness, helping trusting relationship, creating caring healing environment, and allowing for hope and miracles.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurses: Where is the Financial Safety Net?

The COVID-19 pandemic placed many nurses in financial distress. Nurses House, Inc. provided nurses with financial assistance through an emergency grant supported by the American Nurses Foundation. In a three-month period between April 2020 till July 2020, Nurses House, Inc. distributed $2,734,500 to a total of 2,484 qualified grantees from across the United States. This article offers a brief review of literature to provide context about the guiding framework of the grant, Watson’s Theory of Human Caring, as an essential tenet to nursing and to the mission of Nurses House, Inc, and the financial impact of the pandemic. We discuss the methods, data analysis, and results of our study that analyzed demographic information from the applications of grant recipients. Regression analysis showed that regardless of income levels, nurses experienced financial distress. The discussion considers our findings in relation to such areas as age and full-time or part-time work status of grantees; reasons to apply, such as testing positive for COVID=19 (78%), work mandated quarantine (16%) and caring for a family member (6%); and study limitations. The conclusion offers implications for practice based on our analysis, which demonstrated that financial safety nets are both essential and helpful for nurses in times of crisis.

Publications of theses and dissertations addressing the human caring theory: a bibliometric study / Publicações de teses e dissertações sobre a teoria do cuidado humano: estudo bibliométrico

Objetivo: Analisar a produção científica acerca da Teoria do Cuidado Humano de Jean Watson em teses e dissertações, no âmbito nacional. Métodos: Estudo bibliométrico constituído de 41 teses e dissertações publicadas no banco de teses e dissertações do CEPEn, catálogo de teses e dissertações disponível no portal da CAPES, no Portal Domínio Público, na TESESENF e BDTD, no recorte temporal de 2000 a 2016. Resultados: Os anos de 2000 e 2016 foram os de maior produção sobre o tema. A região sul obteve um maior destaque nas publicações, com maior quantidade de estudos produzidos na Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. As palavras-chave mais evidenciadas foram enfermagem, teoria de enfermagem e cuidado de enfermagem. Houve predominância de dissertações e de pesquisadores da área da enfermagem. Conclusão: Sugere-se a realização de novos estudos sobre a temática, no sentido de auxiliar a aplicabilidade da teoria no ambiente de cuidados.

Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Practices and Human Caring Science: Toward a Care-Informed Model of Treatment

Psychedelic therapies intentionally combine a caring/healing environment, psychotherapy, and psychedelic medicine as a powerful means of treating intractable conditions of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. This article utilizes the nursing theory of human caring science, as articulated by Jean Watson, to describe the essential and fundamental human caring qualities in psychedelic therapy. By mapping these qualities onto the traits of a psychedelic therapist, articulated by Janis Phelps and illustrating them with qualitative, exemplar data from a psilocybin assisted therapy study, we have created a nursing-informed philosophical theoretical framework with which to begin to examine questions related to trust enhancement between patient and therapist, therapeutic communication of openness to patient experiences, mutual learning between therapist and patient, the influence spiritual or psychedelic practices of the therapist on outcomes, optimizing therapeutic healing environments, and care of the physical body during psychedelic therapy sessions. This article is intended to identify themes and generate hypotheses for future nursing-informed psychedelic psychotherapy research.