Nursing, Caring, and Complexity Science


Book Description

2011 AJN Book of the Year Winner in Professional Development and Issues! "This collected scholarship...will inform the personal/professional evolution of caring and nursing into this century and beyond, inviting new visions of the evolved human in the world of practice, education, research, administration, and clinical care. It is truly a visionary futuristic manifesto for this time in nursing and health sciences at all levels." Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN University of Colorado Denver College of Nursing Founder: Watson Caring Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado (From the Reflection) This innovative volume explores nursing and complexity science, and investigates how they relate in research, education, and practice. The book examines best methods for using complex systems, with expert contributing authors drawn from nursing, sociology, informatics, and mathematics. Each author is actively involved in studying and applying complexity science in diverse populations and various settings-especially in terms of nursing, chronic care, health care organizations, and community health networks. Chapters conclude with a response written by a nursing scholar, administrator, or practitioner, focusing on chapter concepts relevant to the complex systems seen in nursing. Chapters also include models that relate how these concepts can be used in practice, management, education, and research-from micro to macro scales. The first of its kind, this book demonstrates the potential of complex systems perspectives in nursing and health care research, education, and practice. Key Features Presents the central concepts of complexity science as they relate to nursing Facilitates greater understanding of human caring relationships through the lens of complex organizational systems Provides examples of how to create and implement complex systems models that enhance care for individuals, and in leadership roles, organizational caring, nursing informatics, and research methods




Complexity Leadership


Book Description

Lead effectively in today's complex health systems! As hospitals and healthcare organizations strive to meet standards to achieve status in the Magnet Hospital Recognition Program and address the issues in the Institute of Medicine’s Nursing Work Force Issues Initiative, they must be able to respond in ways that embrace rapid change. The 3rd Edition of this groundbreaking text addresses the leadership roles advanced practice nurses can assume in this new environment. It defines the concept of complexity and teaches the leadership skills that are best suited for complex adaptive systems, while also enabling you to build the self-awareness you need to learn new ways to lead. Case studies help you apply your new skills and prepare for your advanced practice roles.




On the Edge


Book Description

This book presents the first comprehensive examination of issues important to nursing from the perspective of Complexity Science. In this groundbreaking volume, scholars and nurse leaders explore key Complexity Science principles and the profound implications they hold for clinical practice, leadership, nursing theory development, research, policy making, and understanding human physiology. Nursing students, practicing nurses, nurse educators, leaders, researchers, and other healthcare professionals will find great value in the fresh insights Complexity Science brings to challenges facing nursing today. Changes in the practice of nursing, emerging new roles, as well as heightened emphasis on healthcare quality present both risk and opportunity. Nurses who understand the emerging science of complexity will be better prepared to creatively face these issues and improve health in broad and lasting new ways. For volume discounts contact info@plexusinstitute or call 609-298-2140.




Textbook of Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management


Book Description

Implementing safety practices in healthcare saves lives and improves the quality of care: it is therefore vital to apply good clinical practices, such as the WHO surgical checklist, to adopt the most appropriate measures for the prevention of assistance-related risks, and to identify the potential ones using tools such as reporting & learning systems. The culture of safety in the care environment and of human factors influencing it should be developed from the beginning of medical studies and in the first years of professional practice, in order to have the maximum impact on clinicians' and nurses' behavior. Medical errors tend to vary with the level of proficiency and experience, and this must be taken into account in adverse events prevention. Human factors assume a decisive importance in resilient organizations, and an understanding of risk control and containment is fundamental for all medical and surgical specialties. This open access book offers recommendations and examples of how to improve patient safety by changing practices, introducing organizational and technological innovations, and creating effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care systems, in order to spread the quality and patient safety culture among the new generation of healthcare professionals, and is intended for residents and young professionals in different clinical specialties.




Transcultural Caring Dynamics in Nursing and Health Care


Book Description

How do you perceive your cultural identity? All of us are shaped by the cultures we interact with and the cultural backgrounds and ethnicities that are part of our heritage. Take a dynamic approach to the study of culture and health care relationships. Dr. Marilyn A. Ray shows us how cultures influence one another through inter-cultural relationships, technology, globalization, and mass communication, and how these influences directly shape our cultural identities in today’s world. She integrates theory, practice, and evidence of transcultural caring to show you how to apply transcultural awareness to your clinical decision making. Go beyond common stereotypes using a framework that can positively impact the nurse-patient relationship and the decision-making process. You’ll learn how to deliver culturally competent care through the selection and application of transcultural assessment, planning and negotiation tools for interventions.




Caring Science, Mindful Practice


Book Description

"Caring Science, Mindful Practice offers unique and practical project examples that nurses will consider for their practice or educational settings. With its integration of Watson's caring science and mindfulness principles, Sitzman and Watson have extended knowledge of Watson's caring science and caritas processes through integrating Thich Nhat Hahn's mindfulness perspective and practices. The book offers rich examples of nursing projects that may broaden nursing care for greater patient and student satisfaction and assist nurses with holistic self-care." -- Gale Robinson-Smith, PhD, RN is Associate Professor, College of Nursing, Villanova University, International Journal for Human Caring "This book provides wonderful tools for nurses to use in practice, education, or even for self-care. Designed for any nurse, new or experienced, who wishes to learn more about applying Jean Watson's Human Caring Theory to practice, it supplies the meaning behind the importance of having a practice based on mindfulness....[It] is a practical, easy-to-read book for all nursing audiences and could be used at any educational level."--Doody's Medical Reviews ìSitzman and Watsons' book is an invaluable resourceÖ The strength of this book is its simplicity on one level yet its complexity as the reader works throughout the layers incorporated within the book.î--Nursing Times This is the first text to help students and practicing nurses translate and integrate the philosophy and abstracts of Caring theory into everyday practice. It was developed for use as the primary text for an online caring theory course that will be offered through the Watson Caring Science Institute in October 2013. Through case examples and guiding activities, the book helps students and practitioners to more fully comprehend the meaning and use of each Caritas Process. It draws upon the contemplative and mindfulness teaching of Thich Nhat Hahn, a renowned Buddhist monk, poet, author, teacher, and peace activist. Each of the ten Caritas Processes are clearly presented by the author and accompanied by guided mindfulness and artistic practices to support learning and absorption of the method. These artistic practices include the use of images, art, metaphors, and expressive symbols that are designed to promote meaningful introspection and self-awarenessóthe underpinnings of genuine Caritas practice. The book reflects several years of teaching by the author, who has been invited by several large health care institutions (including Kaiser-Permanente) to provide training based on her materials. Key Features: Helps students and practitioners to integrate the philosophy and abstracts of Caring theory into clinical practice Offers case studies and guided activities to reinforce content Draws upon the contemplative and mindfulness teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn Includes concrete guided mindfulness and artistic practices for each of the ten Caritas Processes Designed for a wide audience including undergraduate, graduate and international nursing students




Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations


Book Description

The past decade has seen increasing focus on the importance of information and knowledge in economic and social processes, the so-called 'knowledge economy'. This is reflected in the popularity amongst practicing managers and organizational theorists of notions of learning, sense-making, knowledge creation, knowledge management and intellectual capital in organizations and more recently, of emotional intelligence as an important management skill. This insightful book: argues that the information processing view of knowledge creation held by systems thinkers is no longer tenable develops the alternative perspective of Complex Responsive Processes of relating, drawing on the complexity sciences as a source for analogies with human action places self-organizing interaction at the centre of the knowledge creating process in organizations. Learning and knowledge creation are seen as qualitative processes of power relating that are emotional as well as intellectual, creative as well as destructive, enabling as well as constraining, and the result is a radical questioning of the belief that organizational knowledge is essentially codified and centralized. Instead, organizational knowledge is understood to be in the relationships between people in an organization and has to do with the qualities of those relationships.




Complexity, Science and Society


Book Description

Complexity is a new interdisciplinary approach to science and society that challenges traditional academic divisions, frameworks and paradigms. This book helps the expert, student or policy practitioner have a better understanding of the enormous potential of complexity, and how it relates to their particular area of interest or expertise.




Handbook of Systems and Complexity in Health


Book Description

This book is an introduction to health care as a complex adaptive system, a system that feeds back on itself. The first section introduces systems and complexity theory from a science, historical, epistemological, and technical perspective, describing the principles and mathematics. Subsequent sections build on the health applications of systems science theory, from human physiology to medical decision making, population health and health services research. The aim of the book is to introduce and expand on important population health issues from a systems and complexity perspective, highlight current research developments and their implications for health care delivery, consider their ethical implications, and to suggest directions for and potential pitfalls in the future.




Watson's Caring in the Digital World


Book Description

This innovative text, built on the foundations of Watson's Caring Science, demonstrates how nursing professionals can develop virtual relationships that encompass caring and understanding in professional, teaching/learning, and everyday cyber communications. It describes how caring and love can transcend distance, space, and time in our increasingly virtual world to preserve the basic fabric of humanity as we physically interact less and electronically interact more. Straightforward and concise, the text offers specific practices for teachers, students, and professionals to support caring in a digital world, along with practical examples that enable readers to envision ways to create their own caring online presence. The text provides examples of initiatives aimed at establishing ongoing intent to care on levels ranging from personal to global. Included are a variety of educational activities that rely on digital resources to facilitate interaction, collaboration, learning, and connection. Learning objectives and knowledge-check questions in each chapter reinforce information, and a corresponding MOOC and other free professional online trainings are available to readers to augment study. Key Features: Built on Watson's Caring Science and expanded through Sitzman's research Contains specific information and practical examples for faculty, students, and professionals who interact online Provides examples of online caring initiatives from personal to global Validated by seven research studies and extensive online experience of the authors