Page 284 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

Carita s cur ricul um and t e achin g -le ar ni n g

Nature and history are not just about the survival of the fittest, but
also about the survival of the wisest . . . and the most aware.
Ben Okri (1997:133)

This evolution honors the reality that having information is not neces-
sarily knowledge, that knowledge by itself does not necessarily lead to
understanding, and that understanding is not the same as wisdom or
wisdom seeking (Watson 20005). This view invites us to an awakening
of an evolving human consciousness of Caritas, honoring the differ-
ences between stages of knowing while moving toward wisdom and
integration of the whole.
As we reconsider nursing within a broader ethic-ontology-epis-
temology-cosmology, we realize that our approaches to our learning
and teaching and practices have been too small and limiting to allow
for respect of the deeper aspects of our work. In other words, our jobs
have been too small with respect to the deep nature of the work nurses
do (Watson 2005). Thus, our educational and epistemological and eth-
ical models have to rise to the twenty-first-century occasion as a moral
invitation and responsibility to create new or at least different educa-
tional and pedagogical options for science and society alike.

professional nursing education for toMorroW
a values-Based framework for Caritas Nursing:
philosophy and science of caring

As we examine our truth of Belonging-Being-Knowing and Doing
Caring-Healing work in the world, how can we any longer bear to
sustain and perpetuate an empty, hollow model?
watsOn (2005:67)

Caring Science–Caritas Counterpoints to the Dominant Mythology.
Without uncovering the myths and models for change, Palmer
pointed out that we will always allow ourselves to be the changed and
never the changers. This perpetuates the illusion that we can teach
and reach into any domain we wish, manipulate and control it at a
distance, without ever allowing that domain to speak back to us in a
compelling way.

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