All too often faculty complain there is not enough time to teach nursing theory in a baccalaureate nursing program. This presentation will describe the recent experience at our college of introducing unitary, transformative, and caring healing theoretical concepts in undergraduate holistic nursing courses that are currently required for all baccalaureate nursing students in our urban/suburban college. In the course, “Nurse as Healer”, which is the second required holistic course in our curriculum, students are introduced to several health patterning modalities experientially, with an emphasis that these modalities are theory informed and creatively unfold in mutual process. All faculty teach centering, presencing, progressive relaxation, imagery, mindful meditation, therapeutic touch, gentle hand massage, aromatherapy, hypnotherapeutic suggestions, and therapeutic stories and metaphors. Interspersed in class dialogue are concepts of the Science of Unitary Human Beings (SUHB)(Rogers, 1992; Butcher, & Malinski, 2015), Power as Knowing Participation in Change (Barrett, 2015), Health as Expanding Consciousness (Newman, 2008; Pharris2105) and caring healing (Watson 2015, Smith, 2015) theories. All faculty teaching this class have a holistic nursing practice and dialogue regularly, discussing how we are living the power theory with our students, to enrich life and to improve the course. This presentation will illustrate how it is possible, pleasurable and necessary to teach unitary, transformative caring healing theories as foundational in holistic nursing practice.
Grace, Willis, Roy and Jones (2016) reported that nursing is at a crossroad and has an “urgent social responsibility” (p.61) to better develop nursing scholars and leaders. I contend that we need to start this in undergraduate nursing education. Fawcett (2007) emphasized that “nursing practice is based on unique nursing knowledge” (p. 98). Thorne (2014) warned we are at risk of losing our nursing identity if we do not have “clarity on what constitutes core disciplinary knowledge” (Grace et al, p. 62). Malinski (2017) emphasized we must teach nursing theory, utilize nursing theory in our research, expect nursing theory to inform our practice. One solution could be to start seeding more knowledge of theory informed practice in all BSN programs. Of course, in an ideal world, this knowledge would also be seeded in programs preparing associate degree nurses, LPN’s, nurse’s aides and health care assistants. For over 25 years at our college, a holistic nursing elective has been offered to introduce SUHB and holistic nursing modalities to undergraduate nursing students. Student evaluations overwhelmingly emphasized that the course should be required for all nursing students. After much curriculum development work, the new curriculum has been implemented with two required holistic courses. Freshman or sophomore students take a ½ credit course entitled Holistic Self Care, in which they are introduced to Bohm’s (1992) dialogue process, reflective journaling, mindfulness, progressive relaxation and appreciative inquiry as they focus and work on enhancing self care and progressing toward their own self selected health goals. Typically, the emergent themes we see in their journals are stress management, time management and work life balance. Often students reported that although they initially disliked the journaling assignment, they
feeling more comfortable. And this can support you, ease your experience, while you absorb more knowledge. You can enjoy using multiple ways of knowing, Carper’s empirics, aesthetics, ethical, and personal ways of knowing (1978), Chinn and Kramer’s emancipatory knowing as ethics in action, praxis, the integration of knowing, being and doing, engaging in action for social justice (2011). Simultaneously, that relaxation can proceed, right shoulder, left shoulder, right arm, left arm progressively with each breath, feeling more comfortable, you can go deeper with your breath, allowing the relaxation to support you in deepening awareness of Munhall’s (1993) unknowing as a way of knowing, open, ongoing receptivity to more information, opening up to multiple possibilities and creative discoveries with each encounter with patients, with colleagues, with self, as theory informed practice. And you can remember Martha Rogers Science of Unitary Human Beings (Rogers, 1992; Butcher & Malinski, 2015), that we are energy fields in mutual process with the environmental field, that the whole is different than the sum of the parts and you can tell nothing about the nature of water by looking at hydrogen or oxygen in isolation. This is emergence from Flatland, practicing nursing and living life pandimensionally. Simultaneously, the relaxation can proceed with each breath, softening muscle fibers around the vertebrae of the back, chest muscles, upper back, lower back, relaxing more deeply. Living Elizabeth Barrett’s power theory more knowingly, patterning ourselves as energy fields to promote health and well being in mutual process, with our awareness, choices, freedom to act intentionally and involvement in facilitating desired change. Enjoying the process of living the theories more deeply. You can continue to attend to the rhythm of your breathing and deepen your comfort as you reflect on Margaret Newman’s theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness, and discover what is meaningful for your patients and what is meaningful for you (Newman, 2008; Pharris, 2015). Consider Richard Cowling’s (2000) process of facilitating healing by appreciating pattern, pattern appreciation, how can you engage in appreciating patterns of patients, rather than solely focusing on their problems, how might this mutual process change your relationship ontologically, so all individuals can mutually benefit? How can you approach another, as Smith emphasized,
and caring healing theories. It can amplify your enjoyment of nursing, pandimensionally, as theory informed practice. So feel free to take a few minutes of clock time, to memorize this experience, know it is available to you, whenever you want it, whenever you need, you can retrieve it with your breath, your intention, in whatever way it supports you healthfully, helpfully. And then, in a few minutes of nonlinear time, you can feel free to begin to orient to this room, taking with you the comfort you have created, orienting with a sense of refreshment, alertness and energized calm. Please feel free to give yourself thanks and receive my thanks as well, in mutual process. you. References Barrett, E.A.M. (2015). Barrett’s theory of as knowing participation in change. In M. Smith & M. Parker (Eds.), Nursing theories and nursing practice (pp. 495-508). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis. Bohm, D. (1992). On dialogue. Noetic science review, No. 23, 16-18. Butcher, H. & Malinski, V. (2015). Martha E. Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings. In M. Smith & M. Parker (Eds.), Nursing theories and nursing practice (pp. 237-261). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Carper, B (1978). Fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing. Advances in Nursing Science, 1 (1), 13-23. Chinn, P., & Kramer, M. (2011). Integrated theory and knowledge development in nursing (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby. Cowling, W.R. (2000). Healing as appreciating wholeness. Advances in Nursing Science, 22(3), 16-32. Fawcett. J. (2007). Nursing qua nursing: The connection between nursing knowledge and nursing shortages. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 59(1), 97-99.