Contributors – Rudolf Cymorr Kirby P. Martinez, PhD, RN
Savina O. Schoenhofer, PhD, RN
Anne Boykin, PhD, RN

Kapwa is a distinct cultural value among Filipinos, serving as our default way of relating to persons beyond the self. De Guia (2005) describes kapwa as the “self-in-the-other”, expressing the paradoxical oneness and uniqueness of each person. Human persons, symbolically, are like the rays of the sun, where the center is our collective “Godness within” and each person is a unique ray emanating from this common core. Although each of us vibrates uniquely, we share the same essential essence with every other person. Thus, we are obliged to care for others in the manner we ourselves would wish to be cared for because we are, in the language of Gen Z, “cosmic sibsters.”

In Filipino Caring Philosophy and Structure (FilCaPS) and Theory of Nursing Situation as Caring Moment (NurCaM) (Martinez, 2025, 2026), kapwa is the ontological axis of Filipino caring, the pivot through which caring is lived. In Filipino nursing, for instance, the perspective of kapwa grounds our caring-in-nursing, making it not only professional but human and mystical as well. Recognizing the person whom we nurse as our kapwa prevents the default process of othering commonly found in health care situations. The other person is OUR kapwa, not the kapwa.

The Filipino value of kapwa resonates deeply with the Theory of Nursing as Caring (NAC) (Boykin & Schoenhofer, 2001). Both affirm that caring is not something we merely do but something we come to know through our relationships with others. In NAC, this knowing of the other as caring unfolds within the sacred space of the ‘caring-between’. Viewed through the lens of kapwa, knowing another as a caring person and knowing ourselves as caring persons are reciprocal processes. The more we recognize caring in one another, the more profoundly we come to know ourselves as caring persons, and vice versa. Caring for others as our kapwa makes us fully human.

Seeing the person whom we nurse as kapwa fosters self-empowerment as it affirms that while the nurse is the expert in nursing, the person nursed has always been the rightful expert in their own lived experience (Martinez, 2024). Through the gaze of kapwa, we no longer see the other as mere patients who simply need fixing or clients whom we serve purely for monetary compensation, but as genuine human persons like us, with whom we co-create caring moments. Our kapwa, the person whom we nurse, is not merely an embodied spirit or an ensouled body, but the living expression of humanity itself. In the words of Rumi, the person is not just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean in a single drop. When we care for another by embracing them as our kapwa, we care not only for that single person, but for the rest of humanity, ourselves included, through them through them. “A nurse caring for the other as kapwa is not only a ritualistic mundane activity but also a mystical ritual to encounter God through caring between persons. (Boykin et al., p.198). Viewed through kapwa, nursing situation becomes a mystical caring moment where we are reminded of our shared humanity and our inherent capacity to be divine.

As a Filipino nurse educator, there is a simple exercise I use to center my students in caring and remind them of the Filipino value of kapwa. Before our clinical rotation begins, I ask each student to name the one person who matters most to them at that moment—the person they treasure above all others. Then I invite them to picture that person through their mind’s eye, after which I say, “Your goal for today is to nurse the person assigned to you, your kapwa, in the same manner that you would want your most loved person to be cared for.” During the shift, I occasionally ask students, “For your kapwa, what is their most pressing concern?” (Alternatively: “What matters most to them?”) “As a nurse, how do you plan to respond to this concern?” At the end of each shift, I facilitate a rapid appreciative reflection, asking the students to share their key takeaways from the day’s clinical rotation and posing reflective questions such as, “What have you realized, and how will this change the way you nurse moving forward?”

Among Filipinos, seeing another person as kapwa comes naturally. This is one reason Filipino nurses’ caring is often described as deeply humane and warm, for the person whom we nurse is never detached from us but reflects those we hold most dearly in our lives. Perhaps this is why, in Filipino caring, a stranger is never really a stranger. In every person we nurse, we are reminded of those who matter most to us. This is the quiet power of kapwa; it dissolves the distance between ourselves and those we nurse, inviting us to extend the same tenderness we reserve for our loved ones to every person entrusted to our care. Kapwa sustains another Filipino value, malasakit, the animating essence of Filipino caring. Together, these values make Filipino nursing deeply personal and transcendental, the way it was always meant to be.

Although the fundamental lived meaning of the Filipino concept and practice of kapwa is grounded in an ontological position of God-ness and mysticism, the practiced meaning of kapwa can be a valuable perspective and practice for all nurses, regardless of individual existential position. Perhaps making nursing more caring begins not by changing our nursing therapeutics, but by changing how we see the person before us and how we view ourselves in relation to the person before us. Every nursing situation offers us a choice: we can encounter a patient, a client, or we can encounter our kapwa. In that choice lies the difference between merely doing nursing and truly living nursing.

Sources

Boykin, A., Burt, M., Grobbel, C., Packard, M. T., Martinez, R. C. K. P., Smith, M. C., & Wolf, Z. R. (2025). Returning to the ancient wisdom of Hildegard of Bingen for advancing caring science. International Journal for Human Caring, 29(3). https://doi.org/10.20467/IJHC-2025-0020

Boykin, A., & Schoenhofer, S. O. (2001). Nursing as caring: A model for transforming practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

De Guia, K. (2005). Kapwa: The self in the other: Worldviews and lifestyles of Filipino culture-bearers. Anvil Publishing, Inc.

Martinez, R. C. K. P. (2024). Nursing-situation-as-caring-moment (NurCaM): A Filipino value-grounded theory of nursing. Philippine Nurses Association, Inc., & San Beda University, College of Nursing. https://osf.io/download/7yjxn/

Martinez, R. C. K. P. (2025, November 17). Musing of a Nursologist: Komunidad, kapwa, kaginhawahan at pakikiramdam: Values as philosophy of Filipino caring [Short Essay]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17hS87ujJg/

Martinez, R. C. K. P. (2026). Nursing situation as caring moment (NurCaM): A Filipino value-grounded theory of nursing. Nursology. https://nursology.net/nurse-theories/nursing-situation-as-caring-moment-nurcam-a-filipino-value-grounded-theory-of-nursing/

About the Contributors

Rudolf Cymorr Kirby P. Martinez is a nurse educator and nursing theorist from the Philippines. He developed the Nursing Situation as caring moment (NurCaM) theory and the Filipino Caring Philosophy and Structure (FilCaPS), advancing culturally grounded nursing scholarship rooted in the Filipino value of kapwa.

Savina O. Schoenhofer is a retired nurse educator and co-developer of the theory of Nursing As Caring. Her teaching career began at Wichita State University, followed by Florida Atlantic University, University of Mississippi, Texas Tech University and Alcorn State University.

Anne Boykin is a retired nurse educator and the co-developer of the theory of Nursing As Caring. She is Professor Emeritus of the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University.