Contributor – Shauna Lee Aranton, MSN, APRN,FNP-BC

I recently participated in a guest lecture given by Dr. Jacqueline Fawcett, as part of a PhD nursing course at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. During her lecture, Dr. Fawcett asked my classmates and me to think about a concept to replace “caring” as a descriptor for what nursologists do in practice. Dr. Fawcett asked that question from her experiences as a PhD student taking courses from Martha Rogers and from Rogers’ publications. For example, Rogers once wrote, “Caring is one practice modality getting much attention from nurses’ today. However, as such, caring does not identify nurses any more than identifies workers from another field. Everyone needs to care; the nature of caring in a given field depends entirely on the body of scientific knowledge specific to the field. Caring is simply a way of using knowledge” (Rogers, 1992, p. 33).

After thinking about what could replace caring and take into account the idea that caring is using knowledge, I have offered Intentional Practice as the replacement for caring in nursology practice.

Although caring is associated with nursing practice, caring can vary from person to person depending on their priorities, personal values, and their interpretation of the definition of caring. To care for a patient does not imply you have the feelings of care for them, it implies you are responsible for their wellbeing and needs.

Consider instead, the term Intentional Practice. Practicing with intention takes more from the nursologist. Consider bedside nursologists. How many of us clocked in, received our assignment, received report, began to plan our day, answered call lights, rounded, answered more call lights, went to lunch or other meal, charted, passed medication, charted, gave report, clocked out, drove home to shower and have a meal and then repeat the next day.

Does that imply caring? Certainly, we can go into autopilot, become jaded, and simply go through the motions. However, frequently without knowing it, we were Practicing with Intention. Practicing with Intention requires curiosity, individualism, tailoring, science, reflection, and then action. We were curious when we looked at the chart, looking for anything that might be important. We created an individual care plan based on that information. We tailored our tone, our presence, and our time for each patient. We continuously use nursology science, albeit sometimes more implicitly than explicitly, to guide physical assessment, analyze trends, and interpret lab values. We reflect on each patient’s needs and our own required responsibilities, such as safe medication passes, documentation requirements, and whether we have done everything we needed to for the day.

We take the actions of Intentional Practice when we integrate and apply our personal knowing, our ethical knowing, our aesthetic knowing, our sociopolitical knowing, our spiritual knowing, our empirical knowing, and our emancipatory knowing throughout our entire day (see https://nursology.net/patterns-of-knowing-in-nursing/). Clearly, we Practice with Intention, which is the universal form of caring.

Reference
Rogers, M. E. (1992). Nursing science and the space age. Nursing Science Quarterly, 5(1), 27-34. https://doi.org/10.1177/089431849200500108

About Shauna Lee Aranton, MSN, APRN,FNP-BC

I am a first year PhD nursing learner at the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Nursing where I completed my BSN and MSN. I am also a Family Nurse Practitioner at a very busy practice in Las Vegas, NV, a clinical instructor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and a pediatric intensive care unit nursologist at the only Level 1 trauma hospital in Nevada. I am a mother of four incredible boys and married to my best friend. When I am not taking care of my time commitments, I am on the dance floor, at dinner with my friends, playing video games with my children, or staring at the stars wondering how I can make more of a difference.