SPECIAL SESSION: Caring International Research Collaborative (CIRC): Transforming Sharing to Science

Description/Overview: This presentation will review the background and selected studies of the Caring International Research Collaborative (CIRC). CIRC is an international group of researchers that began in 2005. Specifically, the small group wanted to assemble colleagues whose individual research findings related to caring, healing, relationship-based care, and all organizational/institutional variables that may directly influence these outcomes. Their assembly of sharing their respective research was an effort to discover what would not be possible on solo journeys. The group dreamt of partnering with those who shared values in service settings and schools of nursing. From 2005 to now, approximately 80 studies have been conducted by one or several of the members of CIRC. The largest "Sharing Groups" include Caritas (Caring, based on Watson's Theory of Caring), Relationship Based Care, Compassion Fatigue/Burnout and Self-Care, and Workload of Staff and Faculty of Nursing Eduction. This presentation will showcase the outcomes of organizations who have courageously embraced caring theory practices and the relationship-based care (RBC) operational model, or selected elements related to them. During and after the presentation, there will be interaction between the presenters and attendees regarding how this approach and presented studies contribute to health care research in transformative ways…perhaps, the ultimate evidence-based practice model. Both the short and long term research trajectory of CIRC will be reivewed. Opportunities for attendees will be presented formally in this presentation and will likely occur spontaneously during the interaction between presenters, CIRC members, and attendees of session.