The meaning of humanistic nursing is found in the human act itself, that
is, in the phenomenon of nursing as it is experienced in the everyday
world. Therefore, the interrelated practical and theoretical development
of humanistic nursing is dependent on nurses experiencing,
conceptualizing, and sharing their unique angular views of their unique
lived nursing worlds. An open framework suggesting dimensions for such
exploration was derived from a consideration of the phenomenon of
nursing within its basic context, namely, the human situation. The
elements of this humanistic nursing framework include incarnate men
(patient and nurse) meeting (being and becoming) in a goal-directed
(nurturing well-being and more-being), intersubjective transaction
(being with and doing with) occurring in time and space (as measured and
as lived by patient and nurse) in a world of men and things.
The framework offers a little security by providing some reference
points for the exploration. However, what is gained in clarity by
conceptual abstraction is lost from the flavor of the actual experience.
Like a weather map that statically represents major factors and currents
in their interrelatedness, the framework discloses a nexus of elements.
But it is as far from the real phenomenon of nursing with its pains and
suffering and comforting and joys and hopes as the weather map is from
real weather with its wind and rain and heat and cold. This chapter is
concerned with the same basic framework of humanistic nursing but seen
in an enlivened form. To inspirit its constructs the search must return
again to the existential source, to the nursing situation as it is
lived.
When I reflect on an act of mine (no matter how simple or complex) that
I can unhesitatingly label "nursing," I become aware of it as
goal-directed (nurturing) being with and doing with another. The
intersubjective or interhuman element, "the between," runs through
nursing interactions like an underground stream conveying the nutrients
of healing and growth. In everyday practice, we are usually so involved
with the immediate demands of our "being with and {22} doing with" the
patient that we do not focus on the overshadowed plane of "the between."
However, occasionally, in beautiful moments, the interhuman currents are
so strong that they flood our conscious awareness. Such rare and
rewarding moments of mutual presence remind us of the elusive
ever-present "between."
>From these epiphanic episodes in our personal nursing experience, we
have certain and immediate knowledge of intersubjectivity. Through our
experience, too, we know that both humanizing and dehumanizing effects
can result from human interactions. Therefore, it is essential for the
development of humanistic nursing to explore and describe its
intersubjective character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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