Nurse as wounded healer in The English Patient

Abstract

The English Patient, a novel by Michael Ondaatje (1993), is a romantic drama set in the chaos of Europe at the end of World War II. In the ruins of an Italian church, a terribly burned man is being tended to by Hana, a young nurse too traumatised from her own war experiences to return home. Ondaatje’s acclaimed novel contains rich imagery, complex characters and interactions, as well as a story that weaves back and forward in time. The novel is a writerly text; the meaning needs to be unravelled by the reader and, due to this feature, it also makes for interesting reading about nursing. Too often texts about nursing are reductionist and stereotyped – nurse characters are often angels or lovers, sometimes villains and sleuths. Rarely are they portrayed as a wounded healer – an ancient, intriguing and illuminating myth. Within this paper, Hana’s struggles are read as a metaphor for those that similarly confront many nurses. She is a vulnerable young person thrust, because of the nature of her work, into the harsh realities of adulthood. She aspires to a kind of nursing that is attendant and gentle, and able to meet all of her patient’s needs. Yet the world she is forced to work in is chaotic, unpredictable and stripped of resources. The patient she tries to comfort is moribund and he endures agony and loss. In her interactions with him she learns about love, beauty, humility and, ultimately, resilience. In this way the written, literary narrative connects to a cultural narrative that at once embodies a profession’s struggles and illuminates more general transcendence. Image of Michael Ondaatje CC by Attribution 2.0 Generic. Photo by Tulane Public Relations 2010