Creating a Human Caring Culture: A Caring Science Framework for Organizational Transformation
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Published on: February 16, 2011
Grissel Hernandez1, Kathleen Bradley, Gisso Oreo
1Author Affiliations: Vice President, Professional Development, Research, and Magnet (Dr Hernandez), Senior Nursing Consultant (Dr Bradley), Senior Director, Professional Development (Dr Oreo), Nursing Professional Development Specialist II (Dr Haririfar), Director, Education and Professional Development (Dr Moreno), Center for Education, Research, and Professional Development, Stanford Health Care, Palo Alto, California; Chief Nurse Executive and Senior Vice President (Dr Beatty), Stanford Health Care, Palo Alto, California; Section Chief, Nursing Research, Primary Care Population Health (Dr Hernandez), Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.
Background:
Health systems face increasing complexity, workforce challenges, and risk of depersonalized care, highlighting the need for humanistic, theory-guided care delivery frameworks.
Purpose:
To describe the development and implementation of the Caring Science-Human Caring Culture (CS-HCC) Framework© within a large academic health system.
Approach:
A 15-year (2010-2025), phased, evidence-informed organizational approach grounded in Watson Caring Science was used. The framework was operationalized across 4 domains: leadership/legacy, education, praxis, and research/inquiry.
Results:
Implementation began within nursing education and professional development and subsequently expanded across clinical, interprofessional, and system-level roles and initiatives. Strategies included leadership development, caring literacy education, and more than 400 practice initiatives. Systematic evaluation incorporated patient experience, workforce well-being, and caring culture indicators, with evidence of sustained organizational adoption across more than 400 Caring Science-informed initiatives.
Conclusions:
The CS-HCC Framework© provides a scalable, theory-guided approach to embedding humanistic care in complex health systems.
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