Occupational Health Nursing Practice through the Human Caring Lens

Abstract

Many health care and academic centers have adopted Watson's Theory of Human Caring as their guiding principle; the theory is also used in other disciplines, such as library science. Human caring theory offers occupational health nurses a structure that not only defines a focus for practice, but also provides a basis for moral and philosophical practice analyses. In particular, nurses may find this theory useful in confirming the definition of “caring” and reconsidering what nursing is all about. More importantly, consideration and application of this theory may lead to research on its applicability to the field of occupational health nursing. This article presents the science and philosophy of human caring, specifically Watson's Theory of Human Caring. Two case studies are presented that demonstrate how the theory could be used to evaluate occupational health nursing practice. To demonstrate its possible relevance as an occupational health nursing framework, an analysis of and comparison to existing occupational health nursing guidelines are detailed and discussed.