Most of us enter nursing with a noble mission of serving and caring for others. You may have experienced the illness of a loved one during your childhood or had family members that were in healthcare that influenced your decision to join nursing.
You may have experienced health crisis or circumstances in which you received excellent care and desired to be part of a mission to provide care for others. However, by virtue of the never-ending cycle of admissions and discharges in the hospital and management of chronic illnesses in the ambulatory setting, it is so easy for us to lose site of the human we are caring for. Your specialty has a unique patient population, and sometimes we see them as just the next patient with a similar diagnosis as the last one. We begin to see our patients as their characteristics and symptoms instead of as human beings, people with families, jobs, careers, and aspirations.
Part of that is related to how our brain works – we know what to do with a patient with a given diagnosis. We can anticipate their needs and watch their labs and vitals and intervene when necessary because we’ve cared for so many patients with the condition before. We become efficient and deliver expert care because we’ve done it so many times before. But somewhere in there, we lose the human connection. Providing care to a diagnosis takes skill and expertise; providing care to a human takes time and compassion, both of which we are sometimes short on.
The Gold Foundation was started by Dr. Arnold P. Gold and his wife to promote humanism in healthcare. They define humanism as compassionate, collaborative, and scientifically excellent care, and they support clinicians, teachers, and leaders to keep humanity at the forefront of healthcare. The Annual Gold Humanism Summit was in September, and this year’s theme was The Person in Front of You. As part of the summit, they put out a call for artwork and creative pieces expressing the theme. Check out the Digital Gallery, which is full of inspirational art, poetry, and expressions from clinicians all over the world exemplifying what it means to see the person in front of them – how they keep the human at the forefront of their care. The Gold Foundation also offers several free online courses to clinicians on humanism, well-being, and other topics – check them out here.
Recently, when speaking to a group of nurses about patient connection and presence, a nurse described the busyness of all the tasks required to provide and document care. ?She lamented,
What I really want to do is interact with my patient – lock eyes and actually be present with them – make a real difference in their day.
This is what bringing humanity to the forefront of nursing practice is – being present with our patients. One of the ways we are seeking to make better connections with our patients is through Clinical Nurse Presence. Two specific activities where we can make meaningful connections with our patients and be present are during the transfer of care and when we check in with our patients. We are continuing discussions about what Clinical Nurse Presence at UAMS looks like, and there will be more information coming soon. Clinical Nurse Presence will not only be about ensuring safety and high-quality care but also provide meaningful opportunities to connect with our patients, keeping the human at the forefront of our practice.
“The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head.” — William Osler
