Nursing theories of caring. A paradigm for adolescent nursing practice.

In the past four decades, caring has emerged as a central paradigm in nursing. Caring as a central focus in nursing care of adolescents is developmentally appropriate and has been documented as the primary mechanism of effective health promotion for working with teens throughout the world. Other disciplines in adolescent health are beginning to realize the importance of caring therapeutics in practice, but nursing remains in the forefront of theory development and research in this area and is well positioned to provide leadership in further articulating caring theory within adolescent health care. Beyond theory development and testing, however, nurses need to include advocacy for the legitimacy and the importance of caring modalities in promoting the health of adolescents.