Healthcare interprofessional team members' perspectives on human caring: A directed content analysis study

OBJECTIVES: As Watson's Human Caring Theory continues to evolve and guide the discipline of nursing, the challenge is to find ways to integrate it into practice. The purpose of this study is to describe interprofessional team members' perspectives on human caring based on the Ten Caritas Processes(®)/Caritas-Veritas Literacy of Watson's Human Caring Theory within the Unitary Caring Science. METHODS: This is a qualitative directed content analysis study, taking place in a Children's Hospital in the United States between November 2017 and April 2018. Information redundancy was utilized to guide the recruitment. Data were collected via a one-time face-to-face individual interview. A qualitative directed content analysis was conducted using Watson's Ten Caritas Processes(®)/Caritas-Veritas Literacy as a coding framework. RESULTS: Twenty-seven healthcare professionals participated in the study. Interprofessional human caring, based on the Ten Caritas Processes(®)/Caritas-Veritas Literacy, was referred to as performing loving-kindness to patients, each other, and self; maintaining faith-hope in teamwork; valuing inter-subjective interactions and building trust among team members; cultivating heart-centered-caring relations; acknowledging and processing positive and negative feelings non-judgmentally; applying all ways of knowing in caring; encouraging reciprocal teaching-learning; developing caring-healing environments collaboratively; respecting human dignity of patients and each other; and being open-minded to the unknowns and believing in miracles. CONCLUSIONS: Watson's Human Caring Theory can be an underlying guide to enrich human-to-human relations and create a caring-healing environment. When human caring is applied in interprofessional teams, healthcare professionals find a caring consciousness to care for oneself and each other and promote patient care.