Why are we devoting an issue of Nursing Administration Quarterly to restoring caring back into nursing? What has happened to the caring by nurses? The essence of human caring is the most valued aspect of nursing. The public trusts and relies on us to keep our capability as caregivers foremost in our practice.
Medical science and technological advances have created a miraculous healthcare environment. A decade ago, people with severe illnesses could not recover, but now they can look forward to recovery and a longer life today. Has this technological explosion changed the heart of nursing? Caring. In 1920 Karel Capek, a Czech playwright, wrote RUR, a play in which Automata are mass-produced by an Englishman named Rossum. Although robots were invented to do the world's work and make life better for humans, they rebel, destroy civilization, and start a new race of intelligent beings. RUR stands for Rossum's Universal Robots (robots being a Czech word meaning "worker"), with an implication of servitude.
The word robot has been universally defined as any artificial device that performs functions normally thought to be appropriate for humans. As we have been advancing nursing to higher and higher levels of science, will nursing be robotized? Have we forgotten the calling card for nursing-Caring and high touch with our patients, wherever they may be? The major domain of healthcare practice in nursing is caring.
Many forces are affecting nursing practice and causing stress on caring:
1. The worldwide nursing shortage, and fewer faculty available to prepare nurses to replace those who are retiring
2. Continuous financial shortfalls causing hospital closures and consolidations; inadequate salaries and benefits for the work nurses do
3. Shorter length of stays for patients with very acute health problems
4. Increases in hospital-acquired infections, patient falls, and medication errors
5. Injuries to nurses related to the hazardous work environments
How do we go about restoring caring back into nursing? To lead us in this endeavor we are fortunate to have JoEllen Koerner, PhD, RN, FAAN, chief clinical officer, Simulis Healthcare Services, Houston, Tex. JoEllen has extensive executive-level management/leadership experience in healthcare administration, education, regulation, and e-commerce. She has worked for several years in virtual education and cofounded the Healing Web, a collaborative education-service model that facilitates service learning in the community. Most recently she authored a book, Mother Heal Myself: An Intergenerational Healing Journey Between Two Worlds. Originally, the book was titled Nurse Heal Myself, but after reviewing it, the recommendation to change to Mother was accepted as it is a story for all women, but most especially mothers.
As I am writing this close to Mother's Day and Nurse's Day, flowers are arriving reminding me of my progeny of 6 children and 13 grandchildren and International Nurses Week. Caring is not unique to nurses and mothers. It is the heart of human existence and requires concern, vigilance, and watchfulness in even the mundane matters of our daily lives. We cannot impose limitations, restraints, restrictions, and control over the uniqueness of the human spirit. Nurses have the unusual opportunity of having unlimited situations to perpetuate sensitivity to all people everywhere in their domain of practice. When I recently attended the Arizona Promise for Nursing annual fund-raising event for nursing scholarships, 1st Lt. Chaplain James Claggett, Luke Air Force Base, opened the luncheon with a special invocation. Both his mother, Mayor Alice Claggett, Mayor of Mitchell, SD, and his sister, Nancy Voigt, are nurses. Nancy has been a hospice nurse for several years and wrote this poem, which is the special prayer her brother read. I called Nancy and asked her if I could share her poem with the readers of Nursing Administration Quarterly.
I feel so privileged to be able to share with nurses everywhere this lovely poem of caring. Caring is multiformity, has many faces, and is a mosaic of life's patterns. As I age and grow through life's challenges, the faces change into a broad spectrum of family and friends everywhere. Hopefully, each nurse, and especially those in leadership positions, changes a little each day with the colors, designs, and enlightenment of acceptance of the dignity of life and death and the caring that we are entrusted to. The kaleidoscope of nursing caring is forever changing and the bright new colors and forms are restoring the true essence of nursing-caring.
If Only for Awhile
Come with me and take my hand, If only for awhile.
Walk with me across God's earth; share with me a smile.
I'll talk with you of yesterdays, and if you should cry.
I'll listen to your sadness, and gently wipe the tear from your eyes.
I'll hold you close when you're afraid, with love secure and tight.
That you may find some peace within, when you try and sleep tonight.
I'll pick you up if you should fall, and help you on your way.
I'll understand your feelings, if you are cross with me today.
Share with me a rainbow, or a sunset that makes us cry.
Share a flower blooming, or a desert quiet and dry.
Share with me but one time more, a powerful winter storm.
And I'll read to you before a fire, and keep you safe and warm.
And if you grow tired, I'll sit quietly and just be there.
So you know you aren't alone, that someone always cares.
And when at last the light from you, begins to flicker and fade.
I thank you for the time we share, the difference in my life you made.
You touched a part of me, only you and I will ever know.
Filling me with joy and life, deep within my soul.
I pray I touched your heart, I pray I shared a smile.
-Nancy Voigt, 1993