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CHAPTER 19 Anne Boykin and Savina O. Schoenhofer 367

persons as caring and how they express caring using a locus in person as caring in community with others
high-fidelity human simulator in emergent nursing and with the universe, therefore requires an episte-
situations.This is one exemplar of loci where caring and mology consonant with human science values and
technology have become a synthesis of creativity in methods, with “methods and techniques that honor
contemporary nursing education grounded in caring. freedom, creativity, and interconnectedness” (Boykin
Caring has been posited as the link between spiri- & Schoenhofer, 2001a, p. 53).
tuality and higher education and as an ethic for being Boykin and Schoenhofer (2001a) have proposed
in relationship (Boykin & Parker, 1997). It is therefore that the systematic study of nursing should include a
a framework for knowing and the moral basis for new creative methodology that recognizes the locus of
relating. Self-discovery through an ongoing search for study in the nursing situation. They postulate that a
truth prepares learners “to receive a greater under- methodology fully adequate to capture nursing knowl-
standing of his/her reality as well as the reality of edge within the nursing situation might include a
others; to develop a sense of identification, connect- “phenomenological-hermeneutical process within an
edness and compassion with others, and a deeper action research orientation” (Boykin & Schoenhofer,
understanding of truth” (Boykin & Parker, 1997, 2001a, p. 62). Such a method would allow the study of
p. 32). The challenge in higher education is to create nursing meaning as it is being co-created within the
an environment that can sustain and nurture the liv- lived experience of the nursing situation. The idea of
ing of caring and spirituality (Boykin & Parker, 1997). praxis and the theory of communicative action con-
The role of the dean of a caring-based nursing tinue to be explored as possible underpinnings for
program is “intrinsically linked” (Boykin, 1994a, an emergent research methodology. However, the
p. 17) to an understanding of nursing as both a disci- research approach requires further consideration and
pline and a profession and focuses actions on devel- development of the philosophical underpinning
oping and maintaining a caring environment in which (Schoenhofer, 2002b).
the knowledge of the discipline can be discovered.
As administrator, the dean “nurtures ideas, secures Research Studies
resources, communicates the nature of the discipline, Research guided by the Theory of Nursing as Caring
models living and growing in caring, co-creates a is ongoing. The practicality of Nursing as Caring is
culture in which the study of nursing can be achieved being tested and implemented in several nursing
freely and fully, grounds all actions in a commitment practice settings. Executive personnel, directors of
to caring as a way of being, and treats others with the nursing, and nurse administrators are calling for
same care, concern, and understanding as those practice models that speak to the essentiality of caring
entrusted to our nursing care” (Boykin, 1994a, in nursing, and these calls continue to increase. Sev-
pp. 17–18). Such a broad scope of responsibility rests eral examples of use of the theory in research follow.
on the moral obligation inherent in the role of the In separate research studies within units of two
dean to ensure that all actions originate in caring, and major regional hospitals, JFK Medical Center and Boca
that an environment is created that fosters develop- Raton Community Hospital, values and outcomes of
ment of the capacity to care (Boykin, 1990). caring were reframed and rearticulated to reflect inte-
gration of the Theory of Nursing as Caring. The signifi-
Research cant courage of administrators collaborating in this
Boykin and Schoenhofer (2001a) assert that because caring research reflected a growing realization that car-
the nature of nursing exemplified in the Nursing as ing for persons as persons is a value to which persons
Caring Theory is one of reciprocal relation, where respond. Outcomes of care were documented within
persons are united in oneness in caring, sciencing in reframed institutional values of caring by nurses who
nursing must be commensurate with this perspective. contributed these values in their practice. These studies
As a human science, nursing calls for methods of are briefly described in the following paragraphs.
inquiry that assure the dialogic circle in the nursing A 2-year study titled “Demonstration of a Caring-
situation and fully encompass that which can be Based Model for Health Care Delivery with the The-
known of nursing. The ontology of nursing, with its ory of Nursing as Caring” was funded by the Quantum