I believe it is appropriate to revisit the history of this column in the first edition of the newly formatted Clinical Nurse Specialist. The first Nursing and the Arts column, "Kurosawa's Red Beard: Teacher of Compassion," appeared in CNS, volume 5, number 1 in 1991. The column and its theme and purpose were conceived by this author:

During my years of clinical practice I was deeply affected by the suffering of others (patients, families, friends, nursing, medical, and ancillary staff). No clinical textbook or case study seemed able to fulfill my need for understanding of this suffering or offer a way to be more fully of service to the sufferer. As time went on and I became a consultant, an educator, and a supervisor, the necessity to understand became even more acute. A serious exploration of selected works of literature and visual art provided guidance. What emerged is this thematic research on the phenomena of suffering and compassion was an interpretation, or definition of compassion. It also became apparent that literary works (and the arts, including cinematic art, visual art, and sculpture) had power to heal through entertainment and laughter, illumination and wisdom. In fact, these treasures of thought and reflected life experience offered nourishment crucial to me and, I believed, to other nurses in this age of technocracy.

The link between nursing and the arts lies in both being concerned with the human condition and having a profound appreciation of the suffering of others (psychologic, physical, moral and spiritual suffering). In other words, art and literature inform and enrich the art of nursing practice in a way that textbooks and specialized studies cannot. This does not imply that the latter are not worthwhile or necessary but that they cannot provide the rounded view that literature, in its fuller reflection upon the human condition, does.

How do nurses continue to evolve their understanding of the human condition? How do they continue to develop their aesthetic perception? (This means specifically: How do nurses deepen their ability to see and hear more acutely the other's voice? The other's suffering? The other's need for hope?) How are nurses encouraged and fortified to appreciate the fleeting intangibles of human existence, which seem insignificant compared to the statistic and scientific data that we are accustomed to relying upon? How do we understand how all humans both need and are aroused to give care... to be and become compassionate?

It is my belief that literature and the arts are attempts to comprehend and communicate the varieties of human experience. My column's content seeks to affect positively, through the arts and literature, the art of advanced nursing practice.