nursing

Hope in Nursing

/ Jane K. Dickinson / Leave a comment

Contributors: Barbara MacDonald
and Jane K. Dickinson

Source

Barbara and Jane worked together as student/faculty in the online MS in Diabetes Education and Management program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Hope was a common thread throughout Barbara’s work in the program, and the conversation continues:

JKD: How did you get interested in hope?

BJM: My introduction to the concept of hope in health care was through a book recommendation: The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness by Jerome Groopman. In the context of nursing, I have always believed in health equity and striving for the best possible care for all people. To achieve this, hope is the underlying and fundamental driver. To keep keeping on, to advocate, to fight for the best possibilities, one must believe in and have hope for a better future. As nurses, and fellow humans on a journey together, we have the ability and responsibility to identify and foster hope in ourselves and others in need, in our care and as we are able.

JKD: Where do you see hope in nursing? Where is it lacking?

BJM: Hope is everywhere in nursing. Nurses work with the fundamental belief that we will and can make things better. We continue to get up and go to make things better everywhere at all times. We use a process of critical thinking and decision-making to create that better future for people. Hope is the foundation of this process. We are continually thinking about and creating ways to make things better for the people we are fortunate enough to encounter and for whom we provide care. Hope is woven into the fabric of nursing, and yet, ironically, it is not necessarily identifiable, quantifiable, or systematically measured or fostered as an essential component of care. Hope is fostered through strengths-based, rather than deficit-based, models and systems in health care, and we have work to do to achieve that. What if we began with identifying what is going well and what is working, particularly in non-acute care? What if we had an assessment where we asked how hopeful someone is about their health, and what gives them the greatest hope?

JKD: How does hope have an impact on health outcomes?

BJM: I believe that hope is a pilot light in each of us that is always there, even in the darkest times. If hope is identified and fostered, there is the potential for people to rise up and have the will and energy to move toward a desired future. This is true for both the person receiving care and the nurse. Hope is sustained through incremental progression toward the goal and desired future. When people experience success associated with their efforts, they are inspired, empowered and more hopeful about their future. Success and movement toward results, such as blood glucose levels in the goal range, create energy for continuing the momentum toward the desired future. When hope is fostered, health outcomes are positively influenced and people tend to feel more empowered in their self-management and self-advocacy.

JKD: What connections exist between hope and nursing knowledge?

BJM: It is likely that there is an element of hope in all nursing theories, whether named as such or otherwise. Gottlieb’s philosophy of strengths-based nursing is an approach that embodies hope along with empowerment and self-efficacy and their relationships with achieving desired outcomes (Gottlieb, 2014). As inherent as hope is in all aspects of nursing, it is both surprising and disappointing that there is not a formalized mechanism for identifying and fostering hope to systematically advance health outcomes. While hope is specifically mentioned in the works of Weidenbach, Travelbee, and Kolcaba, almost every nursing theory and theoretical/conceptual model appears to be addressing hope in some way.

JKD: What else would you like to tell us about hope and nursing?

BJM: When I asked a leading mental health specialist about scales to measure hope in diabetes self-management, much like the tools used for assessment of depression and diabetes distress, he replied that to his knowledge there are none. Pausing to think about why that is, I wonder if the effort has been placed on what hope is rather than assuming that it is, and strategizing to identify and foster hope. What if we assume that hope exists within everyone, and find ways to foster it in conjunction with evidence-informed best practice to ensure movement toward the desired future? One thing that stuck in my head in the conversation with the mental health specialist was what he said about assessments in general, such as a depression instrument: “whatever you are looking for, you will find.” If we are looking for depression through use of a depression scale, we will find it. So let’s create a measure to find hope and then foster it.

Even in our current reality, I believe that hope is abundant. We pin our hopes on our everyday approaches, and in the potential of the future. There is hope in science for understanding the coronavirus and immunity to it. There is hope in understanding more about how we need to become informed and examine our thoughts and actions about addressing inadequacies and achieving health equity for all. There is hope for humanity to come together to make a better future, and in this nurses and nursing leadership play a fundamental role. By being hopeful we can find a way to optimize nursing practice in the interest of the public. There is hope as we strive for this optimization in this International Year of the Nurse and Midwife. Could there be a more significant challenge and call to action for nurses than what we are currently facing in 2020? I am hopeful that nurses can come together, rise to the challenge, and be the change we are looking for. Let’s be hopeful and lead a path which inspires hope in others as we create a great movement toward health equity.

Reference

Gottlieb, L.N. (2014). Strengths-Based Nursing. American Journal of Nursing,  114(8), 24-32. doi: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000453039.70629.e2

About the contributors

Barbara J. MacDonald, RN, BSN, MS-DEDM CDE is a diabetes consultant and co-founder of IDEA | Inspiring Diabetes Empowerment Associates, as well as practice advisor for Saskatchewan’s nursing regulatory body. She is a 2017 graduate of the Master of Science, Diabetes Education and Management, Teachers College Columbia University and is completely hopeful about our collective power to shift the health care experience and outcomes for all, particularly those who are most overlooked.

 

Jane K. Dickinson, RN, PhD, CDCES is a Nursology.net blogger and is the Program Director and Faculty for the solely online and asynchronous Master of Science in Diabetes Education and Management at Teachers College Columbia University. Jane’s research, publications, and speaking focus on the language in diabetes and the need to impart hope through our messages to and about people living with diabetes.

Moving from training to educating

/ Jane K. Dickinson / 6 Comments

More and more discussion is happening about the words we use in nursing. There are many words we need to move away from or change, and it will likely not happen in my lifetime. We are, however, making progress, and that’s what truly matters. Nursing faculty who teach their students more effective, helpful, and empowering messages are making a difference. Articles that focus on (and use!) strengths-based, person-centered language are moving the needle, as they say.

In addition to compliance and adherence, which Jacqueline Fawcett wrote about recently, training is a word that is prevalent in nursing. It’s time to change that. I often say, “we train animals; we educate people.”

Right now, nursing’s world is being rocked by COVID-19. We’re hearing many stories about PPE, which fit in with the training vs. educating question. Nurses are trained in the use of PPE, likely from their very first day. They are told how to put them on, take them off, perform tasks while wearing PPE, and so on. While they may get a little background on stopping the spread of infection through using these precautions, I’m guessing it really is training. When it comes to caring for patients who are sick and isolated; however, nurses call on their education. They use all five patterns of knowing (empiric, aesthetic, ethical, personal, and emancipatory) (Carper, 1978; Chinn & Kramer, 2018) to provide the best and most comprehensive care possible despite the horrific conditions surrounding them. Nurses are comforting those who are dying alone, and administering medications and ventilation to those who are struggling to breathe. Those skills are not the result of training. They come from being taught, supported, and guided, both in the classroom and in the clinical setting.

My work is in diabetes care and education. Training is a word that is prevalent in the diabetes arena. In fact, while diabetes professionals prefer and typically say, diabetes self-management education, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) insists on calling it diabetes self-management training. I’ve noticed that as a professional group, we seem to have given up on trying to change that.

The reason it matters in diabetes is that we are working with human beings. Training means basically telling someone to do something a certain way. Like I mentioned earlier, we train animals. Animals don’t understand the rationale behind performing a trick or coming when they are called. Teaching means to explain, support, and educate. It is much broader than training, and it leads to autonomy, understanding, and engagement, rather than compliance or nonadherence. Humans not only have the capacity to understand, they deserve to know the why, what, and how.

The reason it matters in nursing, is that it’s the subtle difference between a profession and a trade. Nurse scholars have been asking whether or not nursing is an applied science, a basic science (Barrett, 2017) or a science at all (Whall, 1993). We’ve been asking what sets us apart from other health professionals. We’ve wondered why other professions don’t use or reference our knowledge base.

Peggy Chinn, in her keynote address at last year’s Nursing Theory: A 50 Year Perspective, Past and Future conference, stated that it’s time to examine our own assumptions and actions (Chinn, 2019). When we refer to being trained as a nurse, or having been trained at a particular school, what are the underlying assumptions? Do we really see nursing as a trade, with trained workers? Or do we see ourselves as professionals who are educated and have a distinct body of knowledge that prepares us to work autonomously?

If we ever hope to change the messages in nursing and health, we have to start with ourselves. We have an opportunity to lead by example, and state proudly that we are educated, informed, and engaged in a valuable profession. We teach future nurses to also engage in the discipline, and we teach patients to engage in their health and well-being – at whatever level that is possible.

Transitioning from training to educating is consistent with caring (Chinn & Falk-Rafael, 2018; Newman, Sime, & Corcoran-Perry, 1991; Watson, 1997), humanism (Paterson & Zderad, 1976), empowerment (Funnell, 1991) and many other nursing concepts. Please join me in removing the word and the mentality of training from our messaging in nursing. Let’s educate instead.

 

References

Barrett, E.A.M. (2017). Again, what is nursing science? Nursing Science Quarterly, 30(2), 129-133.

Carper, B.A. (1978). Fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing. Advances in Nursing Science, 1(1), 13-24.

Chinn, P.L. (2019, March). Keynote Address: The Discipline of Nursing: Moving Forward Boldly. Presented at “Nursing Theory: A 50 Year Perspective, Past and Future,” Case Western Reserve University Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. Retrieved from https://nursology.net/2019-03-21-case-keynote/

Chinn, P.L. & Falk-Rafael, A. (2018). Embracing the focus of the discipline of nursing: Critical Caring Pedagogy. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 50(6), 687-694.

Chinn, P.L. & Kramer, M.K. (2018). Knowledge development in nursing: Theory and process. Elsevier.

Funnell M.M. , Anderson, R.M. , Arnold, M.S. , Barr, P.A., Donnelly, M., Johnson, P.D., Taylor-Moon, D., & White, N.H. (1991). Empowerment: An idea whose time has come in diabetes education. The Diabetes Educator, 17, 37-41.

Newman, M.A., Sime, A.M., & Corcoran-Perry, S.A. (1991). The focus of the discipline of nursing. Advances in Nursing Science, 14(1), 1-6.

Paterson, J. G., & Zderad, L. T. (1976). Humanistic nursing. Wiley.

Watson, J. (1997). The theory of human caring: Retrospective and prospective. Nursing Science Quarterly, 10(1), 49-52.

Whall, A.L. (1993). Let’s get rid of all nursing theory. Nursing Science Quarterly, 6(4), 164-165.

Unity in Our Diversity: the KING Collaborative Conference and Nursology

/ The Nursology Theory Collective / Leave a comment

         Last month, on November 14th and 15th, nurses from all over the world gathered to discuss nursing theory and the future of nursing at a landmark conference at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Hosted by the King International Nursing Group, the theme of the conference was “Nursing theories: Moving forward through collaboration, application and innovation.” Present at the conference included members of various scholarly groups in nursing such as the International Consortium of Parse Scholars, Leininger Culture Care, the Neuman Systems Model Trustees Group, Orem International Society, Roy Adaptation Association, Society for the Advancement of Modeling and Role Modeling, Society of Rogerian Scholars, the Transcultural Nursing Society, the University of Connecticut School of Nursing, the Watson Caring Science Institute, and the Nursing Theory Collective.

The above collage depicts different moments during the panel presentation at the King Collaborative Conference. On the bottom from left to right is Jacqueline Fawcett, Callista Roy, and Marlaine Smith.

         On the first day of the conference, a representative member of each of these scholarly groups presented on the nursing theory central to their organization. Each oriented their discussion toward the future of nursing as a discipline. Awareness of our habitual silos slowly emerged as each of these scholars presented, revealing our tendencies as nurse theorists – nursologists – to work in isolation. These voices were put into dialogue in a panel, convened to discuss the future of nursing theory and the discipline as we know it. From this discussion, panelists and attendees alike unanimously agreed that the future of the discipline required that we identify common ground and work collaboratively from our shared values grounded in nursing while recognizing and honoring our differences. The panel discussion concluded with a call to find unity in our diversity and recognize the strengths inherent in divergent perspectives. 

The Nursology Theory Collective at their first in-person meeting on November 15th, 2019.

      The next day, the Nursing Theory Collective had their first in-person meeting. In light of the pivotal discussion that had occurred on the previous day, representatives from different scholarly groups were in attendance to participate. One of the main agenda items for the first in-person meeting was revisiting the adoption of the term “nursology” in the group’s name, mission, vision, and values, in place of the term nursing. Achieving consensus through lively discussion on the politics and peculiarities of the term, the Collective ultimately determined that “nursology” was best suited for navigating the future of the discipline. As such, the Nursing Theory Collective has now been renamed the Nursology Theory Collective. It is our hope with this adoption that we can become more inclusive for all scholars and practitioners alike, breaking down walls towards a unified future for the discipline.

         Inspired by our shared space and time at the King Conference, looking towards the future, the Nursology Theory Collective intends to continue to advocate for the future of our discipline through practice, research, education, and policy. We hope to foster an inclusive home for nursologists from all perspectives. We ask you, as important voices in our discipline, what issues are most important to you? Though you may not attend our meetings, we value diversity, discourse, and dissensus. We want to hear from you about the future you envision for nursing. What are the theory, practice, education, policy issues you see as critical to our future? We want to hear from you, and we invite you to our next meeting on Monday, December 16th from 1:00 – 2:30 PM MST. If you wish to participate, please contact us via email at nursingtheorycollective@gmail.com. 

Please continue the conversation from the King Conference below in the comments, we look forward to hearing from you!

With gratitude,
The Nursology Theory Collective 

The Nursology Theory Collective at their first in-person meeting on November 15th, 2019.