Kristen Swansons Theory of Caring - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Kristen Swanson is the Dean of the school of nursing and a distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina at the Chapel Hill. Swanson got famous for her theory of caring. She developed the theory with intent of helping pregnant women who lose their pregnancy. The theory suggested that, in a situation where a nurse demonstrates that they care about a patient, the effect is as necessary to the patient as it could be had the nurse provided clinical activities to the patient (Grove et al, 2013). The clinical activities include preventing infections and administering medications.
In the theory, Swanson referred to four phenomena that entail the field of nursing. These according to the theory are nursing, patient, health and an environment. The theory defined nursing as the informed caring of the well being of other people. It further defined patients as individuals who are in the process of becoming. The theory entailed five processes that should be followed when providing care to the patient. The five processes included knowing, being with, doing for, enabling and maintaining belief. The theory highlighted that each woman gets valued and treated as an individual while each midwife gets wholly committed to woman-centered care. Swanson described ‘knowing’ as the process of trying to understand a situation as it is in another person’s life. According to the process of knowing, one should not try to assume or conclude how another person feels without the evidence (Gottlieb, 2013). It should be evidence-based. The process involves getting information from the patient through personal experiences narrated by the patient as well as thorough testing done on the patient.
The process of ‘being with’ according to the theory involves being there for or with the woman. The nurse should be in a position to be there for the woman. They should be able to provide the physical, psychological and emotional support to the woman. In order to achieve this, there should be effective communication between the woman and the nurse. The nurse should listen to the woman’s needs. Being with, according to the theory does not only entail being by the woman’s side physically. It also includes protecting and valuing her ideas. This can be achieved through accounting for every action taken in midwifery with evidence (Gottlieb, 2013). The third process according to the theory entails ‘doing for’. Doing for involves doing what the woman could have done to herself if she was in a position to do so. It involves identifying those activities that the woman cannot currently do for herself because of the situation that she is currently (Peterson & Bredow, 2009). This process can be viewed as the art of midwifery. It, therefore, comprises of all those activities undertaken by the nurse or midwife with an intention of making sure the woman has a successful delivery. The fourth process is enabling. This process can be described as the acts of trying to facilitate other people achieve what they wish in their life. It entails giving people power to do what they wish. In midwifery, the process involves making it ...Download file to see next pagesRead More