Page 109 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

t heoret ica l Fra m ew or k F or C ar it as/car i ng rel at i on s h i p
She continued, “For the recipient there is experienced an in-rush
of compassion . . . like a river, and there is a transference of positive
energy, strengthening, inspiring. . . . This life giving presence is greatly
edifying for the soul of the other” (Halldorsdottir 1991:46).
This biogenic relationship parallels Watson’s “transpersonal car-
ing moment” (cited in Quinn et al. 2003) and its evolution here toward
Caritas Consciousness and Processes as the basis for an authentic caring-
healing relationship (Watson 2004a). For example, Halldorsdottir’s
research describes one patient as saying: “[T]he sense is somehow that
your spirit and mine have met in the experience. And the whole idea
[is] that there is somebody in the hospital who is with me, rather than
working on me” (Halldorsdottir 1991:44).

fLORENCE NIGHTINGALE AS ORIGINAL THEORETICAL fOuNdATION
fOR CARING / CARITAS CoNSCIouSNeSS RELATIONSHIP
I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the source and origin of
caring-healing relationships in the ultimate sense that it is really nature
that cures. Nightingale’s well-known mandate is the common knowl-
edge that the role of the nurse is to put the patient in the best condi-
tion for nature to act upon him or her (Nightingale 1969). It is assumed
that we can now make new connections (from Nightingale forward to
contemporary nursing literature to new science models): these car-
ing, healing, loving relationships are natural; and, in Nightingale’s
model, such a relationship puts the person in the best condition for
nature to act upon him or her. Indeed, in this Caritas Nursing model of
Caring Science, it is the Caritas Consciousness within the relationship
that guides professional actions, all of which contribute to healing and
wholeness.
A recent research-guided document posited that “[t]he human to
human relationship has the capacity to mediate a host of psychophysi-
ological processes for better or for worse. . . . The biogenic or healing
relationship assists in creating the conditions by which the innate ten-
dency toward the emergence of healing is facilitated and enhanced in
terms of renewal, order, increased coherence and transformation—
the Haelan effect in Quinn’s framework” (Quinn et al. 2003:A75).
Likewise, one can posit the opposite; that is, patient-nurse relation-

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