Humanistic Nursing by Loretta T. Zderad (good short books TXT) 📕

description of phenomena. In a sense, a person does both at once. And often, it is during this process of shifting back and forth, analyzing and describing an experience that synthesis occurs. A person gets a sudden insight, "everything falls into place," "it clicks." One gets a gestalt, a whole, not necessarily a whole in the sense of complete and entire, but a whole frame, form, or structure that allows for further developing and filling in of details.

There are many ways of going about the analysis and description. The following are some that have been found useful in the explication of nursing phenomena.

Comparing and contrasting instances of the phenomenon lead to the discovery of similarities and differences. For instance, in studying patients' crying it was found that their crying was with or without tears; loud or silent; expressing pain, anger, fear, sorrow. Or again, silence may be defined simply as absence of sound. But silence as experienced in the real nursing world has other characteristics. It may convey anger, fear, peacefulness, and so forth. It is these nuances or qualities of silence that are significant cues for the nursing dialogue. They could be brought to light by comparing and contrasting descriptions of silence.

Various instances of the phenomenon being studied may be examined to discover common elements. Characteristics or elements seen in one instance are sought in the others. For example, when descriptions of interpersonal empathy were scrutinized, it became evident that in all cases there were physiological, psychological, and social components. Examining experiences {83} of reassurance revealed they had elements such as empathy, sympathy, reality orientation, feelings of hope and comfort.

One may determine which elements are essential to the phenomenon by imaginative variation, that is, by trying to imagine the phenomenon without a particular element. For instance, reassurance without empathy or sympathy would be false reassurance or, in other words, would not reassure.

The elements of the phenomenon can be studied to determine how they are interrelated. One may ask, is there a priority in time? Does one element develop from another? Consider the phenomenon of reassurance; does empathy precede sympathy? Or, to take another example, in the empathic experience, an openness to the other and an imaginative projection into his place lead to the vicarious experiencing of his situation.

For further clarification of its distinctive qualities the phenomenon may be related to and distinguished from other similar phenomena. For example, empathy is similar to and also different from identification, projection, compassion, sympathy, love, and encounter.

By considering what it has in common with other phenomena, the phenomenon being described may be classified as being subsumed in a broader category. Thus, empathy is a human response, a coalescent movement, a form of relating.

The phenomenon may be described by selecting its central or decisive characteristics and abstracting its accidentals. For instance, interpersonal empathy always involves movement into another's perspective and as a form of movement it has directions, dimensions, and degrees. It can occur between persons of difference age, education, experience, sex; these latter characteristics are accidental.

Some descriptions make use of negation. A phenomenon cannot be described completely by negation but it may be clarified to some extent by saying what it is not. For instance, empathy is not sympathy; it is not projection; it is not identification.

Analogy may be used to promote analytic examination and description. This involves a comparison based on partial similarity between like features of two things. For example, the movement of empathy is like the currents in the sea; the heart is like a pump. The advantage of using analogy is that the comparison raises questions about the nature of the phenomenon under consideration. However, since the similarity between the analogues is always partial, one must guard against overextending the comparison to unwarranted conclusions. The description must always be consonant with the phenomenon as it occurs in reality.

The use of a metaphor also may enhance description and analysis. A metaphor suggests comparison of the phenomenon with another by the nonliteral application of a word. For example, "the between is a secret place." The use of metaphor may be criticized in regard to its lack of precision. On the other hand, there are some (for example, Marcel, Buber) who hold that the intersubjective realm can be described only metaphorically because it is {84} beyond the level of objectivity. And to attempt to describe intersubjective phenomena in precise terms related to the physical world would tend to distort rather than clarify. Many of the nursing phenomena requiring description occur within the intersubjective realm. Metaphors could cast some light on these.

CONCLUSION

As a theory of practice, humanistic nursing is derived from individual nurses' actual experiences in their uniquely perceived but commonly shared nursing world. Its development, therefore, depends on the articulation of their angular views and also on the truly collaborative effort of a genuine community of nurses struggling together to describe humanistic nursing practice.

Since the description of nursing phenomena is recognized as a basic and essential step in theory development, this chapter presented an approach and detailed some techniques used by nurses to describe phenomena. It is hoped that these would be viewed critically and creatively; that they would be used, varied, combined adapted, and lead to new methods suited to the description of nursing phenomena. And if they are developed, it is hoped that they will be shared for the growth of humanistic nursing depends not only on using and sharing what we learn but also on describing how we come to know. Then humanistic nursing theory will grow in dialogue.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Loretta T. Zderad, "A Concept of Empathy" (Ph.D. dissertation,
Georgetown University, 1968). Josephine G. Paterson, "Echo into
Tomorrow: A Mental Health Psychiatric Philosophical Conceptualization of
Nursing" (D.N.Sc. dissertation, Boston University, 1969). Loretta T.
Zderad, "Empathy—From Cliche to Construct," Proceedings of the Third
Nursing Theory Conference (University of Kansas Medical Center
Department of Nursing Education, 1970), pp. 46-75. Josephine G.
Paterson, "From a Philosophy of Clinical Nursing to a Method of
Nursology," Nursing Research, Vol. XX (March-April, 1972), pp.
143-146. Josephine G. Paterson and Loretta T. Zderad, "All Together
Through Complementary Synthesis," Image, Vol. IV, No. 3 (1970-71), pp.
13-16.

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HUMANISTIC NURSING AND ART

The term "humanistic nursing" often is interpreted as implying humaneness. Logically, humane caring must be one aspect (a major aspect) or a natural expression of humanistic nursing practice theory. But the term means more. According to the position being taken here, nursing may be described appropriately as humanistic since at its very base it is an inter-human event. As an intersubjective transaction, its meaning is found in the human situation in which it occurs. As an existential act, it involves all the participants' capacities and aims at the development of human potential, that is, at well-being and more-being. Our approach qualifies, then, as a form of humanism, according to the dictionary definition, being "a system or mode of thought or action in which human interests, values, and dignity are taken to be of primary importance."

In another sense of the word, our theoretical stance is humanistic by virtue of its regard for the humanities and arts. Philosophy, literature, poetry, drama, and other forms of art are valued as resources for enriching our knowledge of man and the human situation. They also are seen as suitable means for expressing or describing the lived realities of the nurse's world.

Contemporary nursing, being a true child of its time, reflects American society's high regard for "Science." Values of science are easily discernible in nursing and affect the character of its research, education, and practice. Consider, for instance, how the nursing dialogue is influenced by the prizing of objectivity, precision of language, operational definitions, scientific jargon, development of constructs and theories, methodology of scientific inquiry, emphasis on quantification and measurement.

There is much more written in our current literature about nursing as a science than about nursing as an art. Although slighted, the humanities have not been rejected. In fact, some nurses and educators are urging that the role {86} of the humanities and arts be recognized in nursing and that they be used more effectively in undergraduate and graduate nursing education.[1]

Turning to my own personal experience, I recall that one of the first definitions I had to learn in my basic nursing program began with the statement, "Nursing is an art and science…." (It is interesting that now, years later, this is all I can recall of the definition!) At that time, I accepted the statement at face value. I did not question it. Perhaps I had not thought enough about art and science and certainly I did not know enough about nursing to question the description. Yet over the years many experiences and insights have turned into questions that challenge this adopted cherished notion.

In the beginning I merely accepted the view that nursing is an art in the sense of being a skillful or aesthetic application of scientific principles. After all, we had a course in nursing arts (later called fundamentals of nursing). This had to do with bathing, feeding, making beds, and hundreds of other nursing procedures that were presented as "nursing arts," the doing of nursing. At the time I also had courses in the humanities and liberal arts. These courses were not related directly to nursing by either the teachers or myself, as I recall. I did not ask: In what way is nursing an art? What kind of art is nursing? Or, how does the art of nursing differ from other arts?

The notion (perhaps "conviction" would be more accurate) that nursing is an art in some sense other than an artful application of scientific principles has been with me for a long time. I do not know its origin nor even the form in which the view first appealed to me. I do recall having difficulty on several occasions in trying to express let alone explain, my idea. At these times, what I experienced subjectively as an intuitive flash of insight would end up objectified in an amorphous blob of words. Yet the theme returns over and over in a variety of questions and issues that demand response if not resolution. This chapter offers some further reflections on the relatedness of humanistic nursing and art.

USE OF ARTS

One of the most obvious ways in which nursing and art are related is in nursing's use of the arts. This may be seen in nursing education as well as in nursing practice.

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Liberalization

Usually, when arts and humanities are included in nursing education programs, it is for their humanizing effects. Traditionally they have been recognized as having a civilizing influence. So in nursing they are seen as supporting the elements of humaneness and humanitarianism. Furthermore, they are a necessary antidote for the depersonalization that accompanies scientific technology and mechanization.

The arts are valued also for their liberalizing effect. They stimulate imaginative creativity. They broaden a person's perspective of the human situation, of man in his world. For instance, depictions of suffering man or of other aspects of the human condition that are found in poetry, drama, or literature are far more descriptive and much closer to reality than those given in typical textbooks.

Current nursing practice reflects the educational preparation of nurses that is weighted heavily with scientific courses and the methodology of positivistic science. Arts and humanities are a necessary complement. Science aims at universals and the discovery of general laws; art reveals the uniqueness of the individual. While science strives for quantification, art is more concerned with quality. Strict conformance to methodology and replicability are prized in scientific studies, whereas freedom and uniqueness of style reign in art. Science, forever updating itself, opens the nurse's eyes to constant change and innovation; the classics promote a sense of the unchanging and lasting in man's world. Science may provide the nurse with knowledge on which to base her decision, but it remains for the arts and humanities to direct the nurse toward examination of values underlying her practice. Thus, humanistic nursing has both scientific and artistic dimensions.

Expression

Humanistic nursing and art are interrelated in another way. Some nurses who are also artists use their respective arts to express their nursing experience. Poetry is a good example.

In an article, "Nurses as Poets," Trautman notes that since the 1940s progressively greater numbers of poems about nursing have been published and since the 1960s the quality of these poems has improved considerably.[2] She believes that nurses' ability to express their feelings about nursing in poetry cannot be attributed entirely to a change in times. Rather, it is a reflection of change in nursing practice. For one thing, contemporary nursing requires a great deal of abstract thinking. It calls for an understanding involving mental and emotional investment, and imaginative feeling with the patient. The {88} nurse-poet puts aside technical terms, looks at her patient in a fresh and creative way and shares her view in a