Luminary: Jean Watson

Luminary: Jean Watson

Dr. Jean Watson is Distinguished Professor of Nursing and holds an endowed Chair in Caring Science at the University of Colorado Denver and Health Sciences Center. She is founder of the original Center for Human Caring in Colorado and the International Caritas Consortium, a network of systems using caring theory to transform practitioners and systems.

She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.  She previously served as Dean of Nursing at the University Health Sciences Center and is a Past President of the National League for Nursing.

Dr. Watson has earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing and psychiatric-mental health nursing and holds her PhD in educational psychology and counseling.  She is a widely published author and recipient of several awards and honors, including an international Kellogg Fellowship in Australia, a Fulbright Research Award in Sweden. She holds six (6) Honorary Doctoral Degrees, including 3 International Honorary Doctorates (Sweden, United Kingdom, and Quebec, Canada).

She has been Distinguished Lecturer and Endowed Lecturer at universities throughout the United States and around the world. Clinical nurses and academic programs throughout the world use her published works on the philosophy and theory of human caring and the art and science of caring in nursing. Dr. Watson’s caring philosophy is used to guide transformative models of caring and healing practices for nurses and patients alike, in diverse settings worldwide. 

Watson has been featured in numerous national videos on nursing theory and the art of nursing.  She is the recipient of several national awards, including The Fetzer Institute Norman  Cousins Award, in recognition of her commitment to developing; maintaining and exemplifying relationship-centered care practices. 

At the University of Colorado, Dr. Watson holds the title of Distinguished Professor of Nursing; the highest honor accorded its faculty for scholarly work.  In 1999 she assumed the Murchinson-Scoville Chair in Caring Science, the nation’s first endowed chair in Caring Science, based at the University of Colorado Denver & Health Sciences Center.

As author /co-author of over 12 books on caring, her latest books range from empirical measurements of caring, to new postmodern philosophies of caring and healing. Her most recent book is Caring Science as Sacred Science (2005) Philadelphia:FA Davis. These latest works, both AJN books of the year awards, seek to bridge paradigms as well as point toward transformative models for the 21st century. A new revised edition of her first book, Nursing The Philosophy and Science of Caring will be published in 2008. (jwNovember, 2007)

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