Unifying Caring Science and the AACN Essentials
Webinar Details
This webinar aims to inform nursing education by offering an expanded perspective on the AACN Essentials through the integrative lens of Caring Science and the ANA Definition of Nursing. Building on Watson's seminal work in Caring Science and Human Caring Theory, this webinar will demonstrate how the 10 Caritas Processes® serve as a discipline-specific nursing paradigm that incorporates and transcends competencies.
Caring Science provides an ethical, humanistic, and heart-centered educational guide for the future of nursing. The webinar will include exemplars of academic-practice partnerships in Caring Science, that unify, redefine, and advance both nursing education and practice. It will demonstrate how this approach revolutionizes nursing curricula, creating a more holistic and compassionate foundation for the discipline. Furthermore, the presentation will champion a visionary partnership model between healthcare establishments and academic institutions, integrating the AACN Essentials within the broader context of Caring Science and the nursing discipline. This integration aims to elevate the standards of nursing education, preparing a new generation of nurses equipped with competence grounded in the discipline, and providing a deeper understanding of the caring, healing, and compassionate aspects of the profession.
Objectives:
- Critique the Caring Science Nursing paradigm in relation to Medical Science and the ANA's definition of Nursing, highlighting key differences and connections.
- Discover the integration of AACN Essentials and Caring Science in nursing education, examining their roles in curriculum development, and identifying common educational strategies across nursing schools.
- Explore practical applications of Caring Science and the 10 Caritas Processes® in healthcare institutions and nursing education, including their alignment with AACN Essentials
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, LL
Founder –Director
Watson Caring Science Institute
Dr. Jean Watson is known around the world for her Theory of Human Caring and advancement of Caring Science as disciplinary context for Nursing’s future. She is the Founder of the Non-profit, Watson Caring Science Institute and Distinguished Professor Dean Emerita University of Colorado Denver. She is the author, co-author, or editor of over 30 books on Caring Science and Unitary Caring. Her latest book is titled Metaphysics of Unitary Caring Science. A Cosmology of Love, (2025 pub. by Springer). Her work is used globally, promoting academic and clinical partnerships toward theory-guided caring science curriculum and professional Caritas Practice, Research, and Leadership. Watson is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and honors including 15 Honorary Doctorates; she is designated as a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing, its highest honor. View full bio.
Sara Horton-Deutsch, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, SGAHN
University of San Francisco
Director of USF/Kaiser Permanente Partnership and Faculty Associate
Watson Caring Science Institute
Dr. Horton-Deutsch has led in academic and practice settings for over 30 years as an advanced practice psychiatric/mental health nurse, teacher/practitioner, consultant, program director, caring science endowed chair, coach, and academic/practice partnership director. In 2022, she was inducted into the Global American Holistic Nursing. She has contributed to evidence-informed knowledge development throughout her academic and practice career to ensure compassionate, safe, and quality care. As a reflective leader, she focuses on inward development to positively influence change. She has co-authored several books on Reflective Practice, Caring Science, and Caritas Coaching. She is a Caritas Coach & Leader, Reiki Practitioner, and Healing Circle Facilitator. Through her journey, she has learned the necessity of connecting to one’s inner sources of wisdom, power, and healing, as well as the arts and humanities that once defined the discipline of nursing. She is passionate about facilitating critical, deep, and authentic connections that support regeneration, renewal, and the profession’s evolution. Her latest books, Visionary Leadership in Healthcare (2022) and Reflective Practice: Reimagining Ourselves, Reimagining Nursing (2024), were published through SIGMA, the former winning an AJN 1st place book of the year award in Leadership. She is currently a champion for the ANCC Essentials within the USF School of Nursing and Health Professions. She is co-director of the Caritas Leadership Program for the Watson Caring Science Institute.
Danny G. Willis, DNS, RN, PMHCNS-BC, FAAN
Dean and Professor
University of Rhode Island College of Nursing
Dr. Danny G. Willis serves as Dean of the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing. He Caritas® Leader Faculty. In his 20-year academic career, he has served as Dean at Saint Louis University Valentine School of Nursing, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing, and Department Chair at Boston College, Connell School of Nursing. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and has chaired the Expert Panel on Theory-Guided Practice and is a member of the Expert Panel on Violence. His program of research and scholarship primarily focuses on wellbeing and healing in the aftermath of traumatic experiences. His work has been recognized with many awards, including the Eastern Nursing Research Society "Rising Star" Award, American Psychiatric Nurses Association Nancy Valentine "Leadership" Award, and R-level research funding as Principal Investigator from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has mentored undergraduate, masters, and PhD students from nursing, social work, child and human development, and counseling psychology. Dr. Willis has published widely in nursing and other health- related journals on qualitative research methods, foundations of the discipline, child maltreatment, the aftermath of hate crime, school children being bullied, child witness to violence, mental health, sleep, and healing. He has served as chair of the American Psychiatric Nursing Association (APNA) Research Council and currently co-chairs the Eastern Nursing Research Society (ENRS) Qualitative Research Interest Group. His publication explicating a central unifying focus for the discipline of nursing ‘facilitating humanization, meaning, choice, quality of life, and healing in living and dying,” published in Advances in Nursing Science, garnered national and international recognition for its relevance to nursing. Dr. Willis enthusiastically shares his work nationally and internationally with invited papers and presentations in the United States, Chile, Colombia, Ireland, England, Portugal, and Japan.
Pricing and CE Credit
This webinar is free to all.
Continuing Education Credits
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.