Caring science, which emphasizes the importance of transpersonal caring in nursing practice, is about more than simply caring for patients. In fact, it’s about more than patients. Nurses must apply the same standards of caring to themselves, so they are able to create “a healing environment at all levels,” and sustain an “energetic, authentic caring presence.”
The Theory of Caring Science was the focus of the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing Spring Distinguished Lecture on March 24. Two leading nurse executives and scholars detailed the theory—developed by Jean Watson, founder of the Center for Human Caring and the Watson Caring Science Institute—emphasizing the importance of transpersonal caring relationships in nursing practice, focusing on the interconnectedness of the nurse, patient, and the broader environment.
Gay Landstrom, president of The Landstrom Group, a healthcare consulting firm, and former senior vice president and chief nursing officer for Trinity Health; and Rayne Soriano, senior director for professional excellence, research, and innovation at Kaiser Permanente Northern California delivered a panel discussion, “Transformative Nursing Leadership Across Two Major Healthcare Systems: Integrating Caring Science” at the Rhode Island Nursing Education Center in Providence.
Through The Landstrom Group, Landstrom provides coaching and consulting services to healthcare and academic leaders. She previously served as the senior vice president and chief nursing officer for Trinity Health, a national health system with 92 acute care hospitals, 100-plus continuing care locations, and numerous ambulatory clinical practice sites. She has also worked in executive roles for Ascension Michigan and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health system in New Hampshire and Vermont. Under her leadership, nursing professional practice has been hallmarked by outstanding quality and safety, leadership development, evidence-based practice, innovative care delivery models, and the expansion of staff empowerment structures.
Soriano is a nurse executive, educator, and thought leader whose work bridges strategy, equity, and human-centered care. As regional senior director for professional excellence, research and innovation at Kaiser Permanente, he leads enterprise-wide initiatives that advance clinical excellence, evidence-based practice, and innovation—anchored in caring science and quantum caring. Soriano led the launch of the KP Caritas Coach Education Program, bringing caring science to life through nurse-led healing environments, leadership development, and system-wide culture transformation.
Soriano and Landstrom met with URI students, faculty and staff members at a reception prior to the panel discussion, where they described ongoing efforts to implement the Theory of Caring into all aspects of nursing. “The beauty of this is there’s nothing new here,” Soriano said. “If you can care for yourself, you can care for others. It is the art and science of nursing and health care.”
The URI College of Nursing hosts its Distinguished Lecture Series each semester. Past lectures have been delivered by famed founder of the global health initiative, Partners in Health, Dr. Paul Farmer; former American Nurses Association President Ernest Grant; Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research Shannon Zenk; and former director of the Yale University School of Nursing Professor and Researcher Shelli Feder, among others.
