A critique: Watson's caring ideology. The proper focus of psychiatric nursing?

1. Watson's (1989) conceptualization of care possesses limited clinical utility in psychosocial contexts, given that there already exists an extensive lineage of human concepts of helping, within various psychotherapeutic traditions. 2. Watson's (1989) use of language delimits any utility that the "caring" construct might possess, Watson's conceptualization of caring is an inappropriate focus for psychiatric nursing, and historical precedents exist for many of the propositions upon which the science of caring is based. 3. Four decades of psychiatric nursing practice research and education render Watson's notion of a "science of caring" redundant.