To support the delivery of compassionate, holistic care, spirituality concepts are incorporated into nursing curricula. But how does the nursing faculty concretely nurture spirituality within students, enabling them to express these qualities of the spirit as a person and a nurse? How can this spirit continue to flourish amidst the highly stressed and conflicting influences of the present healthcare system?
Nursing education appropriately emphasizes essential scientific knowledge, critical thinking capacity, and technical skill abilities to prepare competent, professional nurses. However, nursing students also need to deliver compassionate, humanistic care, and interact with other health professionals constructively.
Spiritual wisdom suggests the necessity of self-knowledge, as a precursor to acquiring and sustaining spirituality qualities, essential for humanistic nursing practice. Historically, nursing education has recognized the importance of the development of the self of the nurse. Popular press overflows with messages related to cultivation of spiritual qualities as a vehicle to provide meaning to one's life-an antidote to potential negative effects of a technological society.
These daunting concepts prompted my personal reflection, planning, and presentation to nursing students focusing on nurturing spirituality.
Expressing the Magic of Nursing Care
In beginning my presentation, I asked the students to first reflect on a few of their optimal experiences in providing nursing care. This was followed by a question: "How can the spirit or magic of nursing care be expressed?"
For me, Virginia Henderson's inspiring poem To Make Complete1 eloquently captures the "magical outcomes" that can occur when nursing care is delivered in its finest manner, which I then shared with the students:
To Make Complete
Nursing is temporarily
the conscious of the unconscious,
the love of life of the suicidal,
the leg of the amputee,
the eyes of the newly blind,
the locomotion of the newborn,
the knowledge and confidence of the new mother
and a voice for those too weak to speak.1
After reading and reflecting on this poem with the students, I commented that it was readily apparent that the results of nursing care as expressed in To Make Complete, require nothing less then a Nursing Magician to accomplish such monumental goals. The metaphor of a Nursing Magician, as described by Patricia Ira, 2 seems like a perfect fit considering what nursing practice aims to achieve.
Students were then asked to ponder, "What qualities will the Nursing Magician need to function effectively?" In my explanation, I described the dual dimensions of the Nursing Magician. The martyr 2 or heart component focusing on the goal of providing the finest care and service to patients, is certainly what nursing is all about. However, at times, the reality of our strained healthcare system stretches the nurse's ability to provide care to the point that care is not given at all. Clearly, in these cases, care is absent. Thus, the second dimension of the magician is needed, which is depicted in the image of a "warrior"2 or the will of nursing. This warrior persona or the will of nursing entails such qualities as perseverance, discipline, and resolve. These attributes are essential in advocating for patients in an environment that devalues caring. Nursing Magicians, as martyrs with heart and warriors with will, are self-aware and are ready to uphold their convictions.
The Developing Magician
The discussion session progressed by asking students: "How are nursing students invited to develop as Nursing Magicians? How is the person, the spirit of the nurse, nurtured through the educational process so as to meet the challenges of a constrained healthcare environment and imperfect world?"
I shared the views of several spiritual advisors and indicated that the philosophy of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, appears congruent with several values in the nursing profession. Furthermore, the Dalai Lama's insights may assist nursing students in their development first as people and then as Nursing Magicians. According to the Dalai Lama, 3 spirituality involves such qualities as love, compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, harmony, humility, contentment, and responsibility. Reflection on these qualities strongly parallels attributes in professional nursing.
The Dalai Lama provides several valuable points to support the development of the spirituality qualities, which I then related to the students. First, His Holiness stresses the importance of striving to be "a good human being."3 This involves conducting oneself while recognizing others' interests alongside our own needs. His Holiness invites us to ask ourselves, prior to acting, will our action or inaction prevent another from his/her need fulfillment? Perhaps we may want to reconsider our action, if we conclude that indeed, fulfilling our own need will cause hardship to another.
The Dalai Lama continues and suggests that we need to turn away from preoccupation with self. 3 He asserts that societal messages bombard us with messages to put ourselves before others to excessive and potentially obsessive levels. He reminds us to be vigilant so as not to become influenced by a society that has magnified this care for self, which can foster selfishness and an inflated sense of self-importance. The Dalai Lama invites us to stop and reflect on the personal benefit and satisfaction we receive when we engage in spiritual actions extended to meet the needs of another. These altruistic actions can lead to genuine happiness. His Holiness has much to say about negative emotions such as hatred, anger, and envy which destroy our inner peace and can serve as a basis for anxiety. He elaborates that acting under the influence of negative emotions distorts our abilities to consider the influence that our actions may have on ourselves as well as others. At times, it may be necessary to accept the reality of a given, unpleasant situation through recognizing that underlying its cause is a complicated web of interrelated variables. One must be mindful that feelings of helpless anger hold the potential to "embitter the heart, poison the mind and enfeeble the will."3
The Emotional Connection
The Dalai Lama summarizes that he believes that there are no short-cuts in development as a virtuous person, but asserts that the ideal is profoundly inspiring and can serve as a source of positive focus.
In closing the presentation, students were invited after reflecting on the Dalai Lama's advice, to envision themselves as Nursing Magicians. These Nursing Magicians were now equipped with the necessary mix of both heart and will to keep the magic alive in their personal and professional lives. Nursing students need opportunities to reflect on the qualities of spirituality throughout the educational process. Incorporating insights from spiritual advisors into nursing curricula is one method to nurture spirituality qualities in nursing students.
References