My early love of science led me to train as a Medical Technologist (ASCP), but within a few years I was beginning to feel like a piece of the hospital laboratory machinery, and wanted more heart in my work. Going back to school for my master’s degree in Psych/Mental Health Nursing, I discovered nursing theory in the class of Dr. Margaret Newman (Heath as Expanding Consciousness, 1994). I loved it so much, I went right to the University of Colorado for my PhD and met two Rogerians, Drs. Francelyn Reeder and Marlaine Smith. I was already certified to practice energy healing therapies and wanted to know the scientific rationale. They introduced me to Dr. Jean Watson and my world changed. In my view, I had the honor of studying with four of the eagles of nursing.
From my graduation in 2004, to now, I have been focused on how to magnify and expand their work of unitary caring and holistic nursing by sharing it with others and growing within myself. The work initiated by Dr. Martha Rogers on the Unitary Human Being has since unfolded as a complex dynamic process in my lived experience. I practiced in psychiatric nursing on a hospital unit at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for 14 years, and started teaching in academia at the same time.
I eventually came to develop nursing curricula at the DNP level, and now the BSN. The knowledge and wisdom, though complex, needed to be introduced to nurses earlier in their professional development. Watson’s Unitary Caring Science, and the caritas processes became pivotal to teaching the practice of nursing at every level. I reconnected with Dr. Watson for two years in my post-doctoral studies from 2016-2018. The wisdom of the caritas team helped shape my thinking and subsequently the BSN curricula at St. Catherine University School of Nursing, St. Paul, MN. Thirty plus faculty have since taught over 300 BSN students.
I am now involved in researching the caring efficacy of students who have graduated from this holistically endorsed nursing program and will soon have significant results to share.