Caring Science Leader to Speak at UW Thursday

Jean Watson, a distinguished professor and dean emerita from the University of Colorado Denver, College of Nursing Anschutz Medical Center, will discuss “Caring Science: Disciplinary Foundation for Nursing” Thursday, April 16, at 9 a.m. in the University of Wyoming Union West Yellowstone Ballroom.

Her free public talk is the UW School of Nursing’s Distinguished Roy and Fay Whitney Lecture. It will be followed by a reception from 10-11 a.m., and then students in the UW Doctor of Nursing Practice Program (DNP) will present their final projects from 11 a.m.-3:45 p.m.

Watson held the nation’s first endowed chair in caring science for 16 years. She founded the Center for Human Caring in Colorado and is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She served as president of the National League for Nursing and was a founding member of the International Association in Human Caring and International Caritas Consortium.

Her latest activities include serving as founder and director of the nonprofit foundation, Watson Caring Science Institute. She is a widely published author and recipient of many awards and honors, including the Fetzer Institute Norman Cousins Award recognizing her commitment to developing, maintaining and exemplifying relationship-centered care practices; an international Kellogg Fellowship in Australia; and a Fulbright Research Award in Sweden.

An author/co-author of more than 20 books on caring, Watson’s latest books range from empirical measurements and international research on caring to new postmodern philosophies of caring and healing, philosophy and science of caring, and caring science as sacred science. Her books have earned American Journal of Nursing “Books of the Year” award. In October 2013, Watson was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing as a Living Legend, the Academy’s highest honor.

The student presentations are by members of the DNP’s inaugural class, who will graduate in May. Diane Boyle, the Wyoming Excellence Chair in Nursing and professor at UW, and Ann Marie Hart, associate professor in the School of Nursing, work with the graduate students and their research projects.

The DNP scholarly project is a two-semester course sequence. In the first semester, students identify a practice problem in primary care or a quality improvement need in a particular clinical site. The students then analyze the practice problem or quality improvement need in relation to existing research literature, integrate related literature into a project plan, and professionally present the plan in a written proposal.

In the second semester, students implement their project plans, evaluate the outcome, and professionally disseminate the results in both poster and podium format. They also prepare written findings of the project according to the guidelines of a specific professional journal of the students’ choice.

Students who will present their DNP final projects are:

Bar Nunn -- Temberly Long.

Buffalo -- Anne Marie Mann.

Billings, Mont. -- Laci Little.

Casper -- Shawn Snyder.

Cheyenne -- Kurtis Crawford, Sheriedan Grannan and Kristen Trefren.

Gillette -- Lisa Aldrich.

LaPorte, Colo. -- Dyan Thompson.

Laramie -- Chelsea Carter.

Pine Bluffs -- Joslyn Thompson.

Rawlins -- Shandra Shepard.