"Together with evaluation, diagnosis,
prognosis and treatment of a disease
we need to know its meaning" (1).
- Elvira Parravicini, MD
we need to know its meaning" (1).
- Elvira Parravicini, MD
As a college freshman in 2007, I received endless positive feedback about my decision to be an intended nursing major. As I enter my last semester, I have been hesitant to fully embrace my career option. Class discussions last semester among other senior nursing students revealed that many of my peers feel the same way. Nursing students observe the toll of stress on nurses, and hear them voice their complaints. I distinctively remember a nurse telling me-during a clinical observation of a nurse supervisor-to "turn back now." I refuse to accept a hopeless view before I even begin to practice nursing. So I ask: Is there any approach that will preserve the meaning in nurses' work?
Spring 2009, I was led to the writings of Father Luigi Giussani (1922-2005) and Communion Liberation (CL), a Catholic lay movement. Giussani challenged youth to judge and engage the reality around them with a Christian approach. The CL university students I met-through a CL vacation in the beautiful Lake Tahoe in the summer of 2009-grappled with the realities presented to them in a wide span of majors, anything from astronomy to history. I questioned how I could apply Giussani's often dense and philosophical approach to a field that often leaves no toleration or room for the continuity of faith and reason. I soon learned of an annual CL MedConference for doctors and nurses. The 2009 MedConference was a response to a "growing dissatisfaction among health care professionals" (2). The theme of the conference was "Medical care and the person: the heart of the matter." After browsing the conference's transcripts, found on the conference's website, I have focused on the keynote address by Giancarlo Cesana, MD entitled "Hope and Care."
Cesana went back to the beginning of Western medicine in order to conclude that "...medical care was born out of a positive and meaningful approach, which finds its consecration in the Christian conception" (3). He challenged health care professionals to unite in friendship, acknowledging the fact that our knowledge and charity is not viable alone. Cesana stated, "Medicine calls us to rebuild humanity from the great limit, represented by disease and from others, more subtle, such as our limits in intelligence and morality" (3).
This approach requires the recognition that the discoveries of science and medicine originate from our desires for something greater-for truth, love, friendship. As Cesana pointed out, "The truth is that science is not enough" (3). Science cannot satisfy a patient's human needs when confronted with an illness. The patient has a need to restore their dignity in the meaning of their life amidst the serious limitations of illness. We have to go beyond mere medicine & technology to truly fulfill our roles as nurses.
The following excerpt from Cesana's keynote address challenged my way of thinking. Studying at a liberal arts college and my clinical experiences have allowed me to remain in the perspective he initially introduces.
"It is commonly thought that doctors perform better if they learn different viewpoints of different cultures and if they are introduced to the awareness of their mistakes and even to a systematic doubt on what they have been taught. This is abstract and absolutely insufficient...doubt never helps to advance, and to deal properly with dramatic situations. Only certainty, documented by experience, helps; an open certainty, sure of the positive meaning of life, is not af
raid of suffering, is able to recognize the unforeseen and the diversity"(3).
Nurses must protect their certainty in the hope that their practice can give to patients. There are nurses who are witnesses to this certainty. Surely you have worked with or know a nurse that is hopeful and positive, caring for a patients in a relational manner. The nurses that I worked alongside in Uganda this past summer are my witnesses that I want to follow. They face obstacles every day-not enough staff, large numbers of patients, lack of essential supplies, and heartbreaking loss of patients. One night at the clinic, the two other nursing students and I were present when a 7 month old beautiful girl named Moreen passed away from complications of malaria. We had helped care for the child, and the wailing of the mother was devastating to hear. The two nurses that night caught me off guard with their hope and
c
almness. They were comforting us, and merely asked us to pray that God helped them through the night. These nurses were able to continue on with hope and love for their patients with the same approach that Giusanni and Cesana challenge us with.
Being able to link my experiences in CL and Uganda is part of my process of establishing my own certainty. Certain of the hope nursing can offer, I will be able to withstand the stress and limitations that inhibit health care providers.
Spring 2009, I was led to the writings of Father Luigi Giussani (1922-2005) and Communion Liberation (CL), a Catholic lay movement. Giussani challenged youth to judge and engage the reality around them with a Christian approach. The CL university students I met-through a CL vacation in the beautiful Lake Tahoe in the summer of 2009-grappled with the realities presented to them in a wide span of majors, anything from astronomy to history. I questioned how I could apply Giussani's often dense and philosophical approach to a field that often leaves no toleration or room for the continuity of faith and reason. I soon learned of an annual CL MedConference for doctors and nurses. The 2009 MedConference was a response to a "growing dissatisfaction among health care professionals" (2). The theme of the conference was "Medical care and the person: the heart of the matter." After browsing the conference's transcripts, found on the conference's website, I have focused on the keynote address by Giancarlo Cesana, MD entitled "Hope and Care."
Cesana went back to the beginning of Western medicine in order to conclude that "...medical care was born out of a positive and meaningful approach, which finds its consecration in the Christian conception" (3). He challenged health care professionals to unite in friendship, acknowledging the fact that our knowledge and charity is not viable alone. Cesana stated, "Medicine calls us to rebuild humanity from the great limit, represented by disease and from others, more subtle, such as our limits in intelligence and morality" (3).
This approach requires the recognition that the discoveries of science and medicine originate from our desires for something greater-for truth, love, friendship. As Cesana pointed out, "The truth is that science is not enough" (3). Science cannot satisfy a patient's human needs when confronted with an illness. The patient has a need to restore their dignity in the meaning of their life amidst the serious limitations of illness. We have to go beyond mere medicine & technology to truly fulfill our roles as nurses.
The following excerpt from Cesana's keynote address challenged my way of thinking. Studying at a liberal arts college and my clinical experiences have allowed me to remain in the perspective he initially introduces.
"It is commonly thought that doctors perform better if they learn different viewpoints of different cultures and if they are introduced to the awareness of their mistakes and even to a systematic doubt on what they have been taught. This is abstract and absolutely insufficient...doubt never helps to advance, and to deal properly with dramatic situations. Only certainty, documented by experience, helps; an open certainty, sure of the positive meaning of life, is not af
raid of suffering, is able to recognize the unforeseen and the diversity"(3).Nurses must protect their certainty in the hope that their practice can give to patients. There are nurses who are witnesses to this certainty. Surely you have worked with or know a nurse that is hopeful and positive, caring for a patients in a relational manner. The nurses that I worked alongside in Uganda this past summer are my witnesses that I want to follow. They face obstacles every day-not enough staff, large numbers of patients, lack of essential supplies, and heartbreaking loss of patients. One night at the clinic, the two other nursing students and I were present when a 7 month old beautiful girl named Moreen passed away from complications of malaria. We had helped care for the child, and the wailing of the mother was devastating to hear. The two nurses that night caught me off guard with their hope and
c
almness. They were comforting us, and merely asked us to pray that God helped them through the night. These nurses were able to continue on with hope and love for their patients with the same approach that Giusanni and Cesana challenge us with.Being able to link my experiences in CL and Uganda is part of my process of establishing my own certainty. Certain of the hope nursing can offer, I will be able to withstand the stress and limitations that inhibit health care providers.
(1) Parravicini, Elvira. "How do we take care of others? A proposal." MedConference 2009. June 12-14 2009. http://medicalconference.us/2009/.
(2) "About the MedConference." http://medicalconference.us/2009/
(3) Cesana, Giancarlo. "Hope and Care." MedConference 2009. June 12-14 2009. http://medicalconference.us/2009/.
