Nursing another is a service of caring, communicated through authentic
presence. Nursing another means living out a commitment to knowing the
other as caring person and responding to the caring other as someone of
value (Boykin & Schoenhofer, 1990, 1991). In its fullest sense, nursing
cannot be rendered impersonally, but must be offered in a spirit of
being connected in oneness. "To care for" seems to require that the
caregiver see oneself as caring person reflected in the other (Watson,
1987). The theoretical perspective of Nursing as Caring is grounded in
the belief that caring is the human mode of being (Roach, 1984). When
a person is judged by social standards to be deviant and even
evil, however, it is difficult to summon caring. This points to the
contribution nursing is called upon to make in society. When we speak
of nursing's contribution here, we are invoking earlier discussions of
discipline and profession. Each discipline and profession illuminates a
special aspect of person--in effect, what it means to be human. The light
that nursing shines on the world of person is knowledge of person as
caring, so that the particular contribution of nursing is to illuminate
the person as caring, living caring uniquely in situation and growing in
caring. In nursing, practiced within the context of Nursing as Caring,
the person is taken at face value as caring and never needs to prove
him or herself as caring. The nurse, practicing within the context of
Nursing as Caring, is skilled at recognizing and affirming caring in
self and others. Being caring, that is, living one's commitment to this
value "important-in-self" (Roach, 1984), fuels the nurse's growing in
caring and enables the nurse I turn to nurture others in their living
and growing in caring. The values and assumptions of nursing as caring
can assist the nurse to engage fully in nursing situations with persons
in whom caring is difficult to discover.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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