Which statement about Swanson's theory of caring requires correction?

• A. Swanson's theory of caring provides a basis to help nurses understand how clients cope with uncertainty and the illness response.
• B. Swanson's theory provides a basis for identifying and testing nurse caring behaviors to determine if caring will improve client health outcomes.
• C. Middle-range theories provide a basis to help nurses understand how clients cope with uncertainty and the illness response.
• D. The components of Swanson's theory of caring provide a foundation of knowledge for nurses to direct and deliver caring nursing practices.

Answer: (B)

Swanson's caring theory focuses on five caring processes—maintaining belief, knowing, being with, doing for, and enabling—that guide how nurses respond to patients to support coping with illness and promote well-being. The statement that requires correction is the one that suggests the theory provides a basis for identifying and testing nurse caring behaviors to determine if caring will improve client health outcomes. While the framework can inform what caring looks like and how it may affect a patient’s experience, it isn’t a compulsory testing framework that prescribes identifying specific behaviors solely to prove outcome improvements. It describes caring as a relational process that supports coping, not a predefined set of behaviors to be empirically validated for outcomes.

The other statements fit Swanson’s purpose: the theory helps nurses understand how clients cope with uncertainty and the illness response; Swanson is considered a middle-range theory; and its components provide a foundation for directing and delivering caring nursing practices.