Caring as therapeutic in nursing education

Caring outcomes in practice depend on a caring teaching-learning process. A transformation in thinking and practice in nursing education, that is congruent with the values of caring is essential to develop the kind of nurses that are needed in today's health care system. A project to implement caring as a nursing therapeutic with associate degree nursing students was initiated in a community college of Western New York in the fall of 1993. Watson's carative factors (1988) and Carper's ways of knowing (1978) were utilized as a framework to develop caring strategies to awaken a caring-consciousness among the students. The goals of the project were to provide a caring space for students to dialogue and share their stories and to experience themselves as caring and cared for; and to value and practice caring by implementing creative, knowledgeable, intentional actions for the ultimate good of the patient.