Publication: Caring as a generative principle: reconfiguring the metaparadigm and operative mechanisms in nursing theory
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Date
2026-02-15
Authors
Muñoz Devea, Aaron ; Muñoz Devesa, Aarón ; Rico Becerra, Juan Ignacio
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Facultades de la UMU::Facultad de Ciencias Sociosanitarias (Lorca)
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Publisher
Wiley
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.70544
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
Aim(s)
To develop a comparative meta-theory of nine caring theories by explicating their assumptions, operative mechanisms and consequences for nursing.
Design
Qualitative meta-theoretical document analysis.
Methods
Canonical texts were analysed using an intra-source strategy. Paginated statements were extracted and coded across assumptions, metaparadigm anchors (person, health, environment, nursing and care) and mechanisms linking caring intention to clinical action. Synthesis produced a typology and meta-theoretical propositions.
Results
Caring functioned as a generative principle that reorganised person, health, environment and nursing and care into distinct practice architectures. Six mechanism-based subfamilies were identified: transpersonal caritas; phenomenological and embodied clinical wisdom; ethical and relational caring; cultural and contextual caring; systemic and organisational caring; and operationalisable caring. Ten propositions linked assumptions to mechanisms and expected effects.
Conclusion
The caring school is best understood as an ordered set of non-equivalent caring mechanisms rather than a single doctrine, supporting translation to practice design, education and congruent evaluation.
Implications for the Profession and/or Patient Care
Mechanism-based comparison can reduce conceptual ambiguity and improve alignment between caring interventions and intended outcomes.
Impact
This study addresses the under-specification of how caring theories work. It provides a comparative typology and propositions that make mechanisms explicit, informing nursing education, theory development and caring-based practice in diverse settings.
Reporting Method
No EQUATOR reporting checklist is available for meta-theoretical discursive analyses; the manuscript follows Journal of Advanced Nursing guidance for discursive papers.
Patient or Public Contribution
This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct, or reporting.
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Citation
Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2026, Early View
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Este ítem está sujeto a una licencia Creative Commons. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/