The roots of nursing:teaching caring based on Watson

Caring is the root of nursing. Therefore, care must be a core component of any nursing programme. Watson (1985) developed 10 carative factors that she considers central to the caring process. These carative factors, which `form a structure for studying and understanding nursing as the science of caringʹ (Watson 1985), shaped a unit of study at a School of Nursing in a tertiary institution in Western Australia. This paper describes how Watsonʹs carative factors were used as a framework for teaching caring to Semester I undergraduate students.