A Gift for Yourself this Nurse’s Week

I am not a salesman for Dr. Jean Watson but I am going to share with you special offers and insights from her now and then. This deal seemed pretty reasonable to gift yourself this May. You deserve it!!

How are you all holding up as Spring turns to Summer? In Arizona we treasure the months leading up to summer and then we “hibernate” to avoid the intense heat. However, I know most of you around the country will enjoy sunshine, blossoms, and warmer weather.

The first principle of integrative nursing is human beings are whole systems inseparable from their environments. It is a good time to develop an optimal healing environment in your office, home, or wherever you have space.

“People say the effect is only on the mind. It is no such thing. The effect is on the body, too. Little as we know about the way in which we are affected by form, by color, and light, we do know this, that they have an actual physical effect. Variety of form and brilliancy of color in the objects presented to patients, are actual means of recovery.” (Nightingale, 1859/1946, p. 84 & Zborowsky & Kreitzer, 2019, p. 371)

We can use this quote in our own lives. Do an experiment. Try “feeling” the difference between artificial light and natural light. Spend just a moment in your day (or night) to assess how you feel in the artificial light of your workplace. Take only a moment and use all your senses see, hear, feel, smell, and taste. What impression does your workplace make at that moment?

Now, as you leave your workplace take a moment to assess how you feel when you step outside. Don’t think about it, just note the immediate reaction. Even if you work in the concrete world of a big city there still may be a breeze, a warm or cold breath of air, or an evening or morning sky to momentarily deduct through your senses what you see, hear, feel, smell and taste. What emotion comes to you that day, that moment? It could be any emotion. I remember when I lost a patient and was grieving, walking out of the hospital and hitting the fresh air made me sad & I cried, it was just what I had to do that day. So, don’t think some miracle will happen, just experience and make a note to yourself.

This experiment is an exercise of mindfulness. I will talk to you more about mindfulness & optimal healing environments in future blog posts.

Share any questions or comments to this blog and I will be happy to “chat” with you.

Peace, Kim

References:

Nightingale, F. (1946). Notes on nursing: What nursing is and is not. Philadelphia, London, Montreal: J.B. Lippincott. (Original work published 1859)

Zborowsky, T. & Kreitzer, M. (2019). Creating optimal healing environments. In Kreitzer, M. & Koithan, M (Eds). Integrative nursing (2nd ed., p. 371). Oxford University Press: New York City, NY