Page 142 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

Fr om carative Fa c t o r 6 t o C ar it as ProC e s s 6
knowing/being/doing. The Caritas Process integrates and is informed
by the best sources of evidence, within a horizon of knowledge that
embraces theory, ethics, values, and the best personal-professional,
empirical-technical clinical judgment and decision making available at
the moment.
The complexity of decision making and acting within Caritas
Processes requires critical thinking, clarity of rationale, and use of sci-
entific evidence; but it also demands a focus and an orientation that
make explicit the multifaceted creative, integrative, critical thinking
necessary for engaging in a systematic, synthesized problem-solving
focus for an individualized, living-breathing patient care situation.
Such a Caritas Process calls upon full use of self. All knowledge is hon-
ored as valuable; it is accessed and processed in making the best caring
decision in the given situation. This process thus cannot be framed as
an absolutist framework—it is relative to the individual nurse, patient,
family, team, and creative processing, integrating, and reflecting; to
the dialogues and conversation required in this specific situation.
Within the Caritas model, all knowledge counts as evidence; all
knowledge and perceptions are processed, reflected upon as valuable.
This complex process is not strictly scientific or fully empirically based
but calls upon creative moral imagination as well as a systematic prob-
lem-solving approach. The Caritas Nurse honors the best sources of all
known evidence, inviting inquisitive risk taking, critiquing, and explor-
atory approaches not stifled by a limited, one-way approach.
The Caritas Nurse aspires to be present in-the-Now-moments, to
read the gestalt of the emerging field, and to respond by drawing upon
all ways of knowing/being/doing. The hoped-for direction is toward
moral wisdom and what Martinsen (2006:132) refers to as “seeing with
the heart’s eye,” inviting us into a new, expansive space as to what kind
of self one should realize and “how should I live my life” as a Caritas
Nurse and person.

PhilosoPhiCal PersPeCtive
For Caring sCienCe: Caritas ProCesses
A strict absolutist mind-set toward science, knowledge, evidence,
and nursing processes often conflicts with other ways of knowing,

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