M R. ANDREWS had been forced spend long periods of time in several hospitals under trying circumstances. He was discouraged and sick at heart. I've never known a who was much help, he said bitterly. Of course, this statement indicated his own inner inadequacy, but it should give nurses cause for some serious reflection. Just as a patient does not expect the same understanding skill from a first-year medical student as from a seasoned doctor, so he does not expect the same degree of maturity from a student as from a staff nurse. However, the mere fact that the nurse-student or graduate -is at the bedside in a professional capacity automatically means that the patient transfers his feelings about all nurses this particular person. He anticipates, rightly or wrongly, certain attitudes and abilities on her part. We need understand that most nursing students are still in the adolescent phase of their development. They are struggling with their own attitudes toward themselves, toward other people, toward society, and ultimately toward what life is all about. The very nature of nursing forces a girl at the age of 18 or 20 relate life in a way few other girls ever have to, and most other girls do not meet the problems she faces until they are many years older. Despite this greatly condensed maturation program, the nursing student needs be protected from having too many demands placed upon her. We must be careful lest we expect more in emotional and spiritual support than she is able give at this stage of her development. In considering what a patient a right expect of a nurse, from the standpoint of his spiritual and religious needs, we are outlining an ideal situation. It is a goal toward which nurses, and those who counsel them, strive and it needs be presented student nurses, particularly, in various forms. Some students may not have had some of the experiences discussed here. Most of them probably have met at least some of these problems, a number of which are dealt with at length elsewhere. But we believe that religion deals with the whole of man's life, and therefore needs be seen in a total perspective. To understand what a patient of any faith a right expect, we must recall a certain concept of nursing which characterized the best in the tradition. In arguing against the shortcomings of a state-authorized examination qualify nurses for practice, Florence Nightingale insisted that other qualities were needed beyond mere mechanical skills. Such qualities, she believed, escaped consideration and judgment under ordinary conditions. Nursing, she wrote, has bodies and It cannot be tested by public examinnation, though it may be tested by current supervision (1). In this phrase, to bodies and spirits is the keynote of the nurse's job. Miss Nightingale attacked a concept of nursing which, unfortunately, still too often exists in the popular mind. Devoted and obedient becomes the definition of what a should be. But this definition, declared this vigorous pioneer, would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse .... It seems a commonly conceived idea among men, and even among women themselves, that it requires nothing but a disappointment in love, or incapacity in other things, turn a woman into a good nurse (2). Whether she likes it or not, the is responsible for considerably more than classroom science and techniques, devotion, and obedience. Along with her practical studies she must become a student of human nature. Helen Cromwell in discussing religion in nursing practice writes that, Criticism of nursing by patients and their families, seems center around nurses' attitudes rather than their (3). In short, the way the relates people is as important as what she does for people, if not more important. This raises the fundamental question of what the nurse's purpose is. Is it just give bed baths, change soiled sheets, administer injections, and so forth? Or is it, rather, utilize these necessary procedures as means achieve the real purpose, which is help the patient regain health and wholeness? If these skills are not ends in themselves, then the manner in which they are used contributes their effectiveness. The nurse's total relation the patienther skills, her attitudes, her behavior -all help in determining the recovery process. For she is nursing both living bodies and spirits. With this background, we can consider what the patient a right expect from the person in whose hands his care and recovery, such a large extent, rest.
Search from 250 M+ research papersSearch from 250 M+ research papers
Oct 6, 1993
Sandra P Thomas 
Open Access