Watsons Carative Factors - Essay Example

According to Watson's theory, caring for a patient encompasses physiological, psychological, environmental, spiritual, and sociocultural aspects of a person. The ultimate goal of nursing is the protection, improvement, and preservation of human dignity and serves as the moral ideal of nursing (Watson, 2016). While assessing a patient, nurses are expected to consider the sociocultural and psychological aspects of their patients before they proceed to determine the diagnostic and treatment measures suitable to their patients.

Watson's assessment factors aid the nurses in addressing the needs of the patient's mind, body, and spirit as a means to a quick recovery from the patient’s illness. In broader terms, Watson’s carative factors can be viewed as nurse-patient interactions and formalities that can be used to enhance the experiences of caring sessions (Watson, 2016). Psychological and sociocultural factors represent the two most applicable carative factors during patient assessment and will be evaluated in this discussion.

The psychological caring of a patient entails being in a position to express the positive and the negative feelings while assessing the patient. This factor entails being in the mind of the patient and using the intellectual being to discern the needs of the patient and give them a sense of ‘psychological treatment.’ In order for a doctor/nurse to treat the body, they must first treat the mind and the spirit. When assessing a patient, caregivers are supposed to communicate their mind to the patients in a loving, kind and friendly manner to make the patient gain a sense of healing even before the actual treatment begins (Pajnkihar, Štiglic & Vrbnjak, 2017).

Treating the psychological self in the first instance of interaction with a patient is an important step in building a good relationship with the patient and a step towards healing. The psychological carative factor also involves being sensitive to the emotions of a patient and helping them out. Most importantly, healthcare givers are supposed to create an environment that is supportive and protective to uphold both the physical and emotional well-being of the patient. The sociocultural carative factor is an important assessment tool for nurses because it considers the social and cultural beliefs of the patient.

To an extent, the sociocultural carative factor incorporates the religious and spiritual believes of a patient. As such, caregivers are supposed to evaluate the social, cultural, and religious beliefs of their patients before they start offering the course of treatment intended for their patients (Pajnkihar, Štiglic & Vrbnjak, 2017). For instance, some cultures and religions do not believe in certain medical procedures such as blood transfusion and surgery. In such cases, doctors and nurses are expected to keenly assess their patient’s way of social, spiritual, and cultural beliefs by asking them relevant questions regarding the whole subject.

This assessment helps the doctor to determine the type of treatment in accordance with the patient’s way of believing. Sometimes, the assessment of this type may not be a verbal conversation with the doctor but a medical registration form can be used to collect the sociocultural details of the patient (Watson, 2016).