Humanistic Nursing Part 12

Intuitive Grasp of the Phenomenon

Phenomenology is grounded in experience. It values the raw data of immediate experience. ("To the things themselves," was the slogan that inspired and guided Husserl and his followers.) So this approach requires, in the first place, att.i.tudes of openness and awareness. It involves learning to become conscious of spontaneous perceptions, or in other words, getting in touch with one's sensations and feelings. It means capturing prereflective experience, that is, becoming aware of one's immediate impression or response to reality before labeling, categorizing, or judging it.

In this kind of a state of readiness to receive what appears, a phenomenon may be grasped intuitively. It is as if a particular bit of reality, a happening, flashes _impressively_ into one's awareness. The intensity of the experience and the absorption of one's attention in the phenomenon vary over a wide range. There may be only a fleeting recognition of a phenomenon accompanied by {80} a half-formulated thought or judgment, such as, "hmm, that's interesting," with immediate dismissal from or replacement of it by something else in one's consciousness. The impression may, of course, be stored in memory and pop out again at a later time. Or the phenomenon may strike on one's consciousness more forcefully causing further pondering and wonder. Or the impression of the phenomenon may be so startling that it fills one's consciousness to the point of pushing all else out; a person is momentarily "stopped in his tracks."

In the intuitive grasp, regardless of its intensity or duration, the phenomenon appears clear and distinct. The intuitive grasp is an insight into reality that bears the certainty of immediate experience. No discursive process intervenes; one simply knows the phenomenon as it is experienced. Furthermore, the intuitive grasp provides a kind of definite and whole understanding, a gestalt, that allows recognition of the phenomenon in other situations. So when the person is faced with another event he can say, "Yes, that is the phenomenon under consideration," or "No, that is not it."

In order to be open to the data of experience in using a phenomenological approach, one strives to eliminate "the _a priori_"

(that which exists in his mind prior to and independent of the experience). This is done by attempting to "bracket" (hold in abeyance) theoretical presuppositions, interpretations, labels, categories, judgments, and so forth. Granted, a person cannot be completely perspectiveless. Man is an individual; he is a unique here and now person. So naturally, _necessarily_, he has an "angular" view for he experiences reality from the angle of his own particular "here" and his own particular "now." Or, stated differently, as a knowing, experiencing subject, each man must have _some_ perspective of the phenomenon being experienced. However, by recognizing and considering the particular perspective from which he is experiencing it, a person may become more open to the thing itself.

Furthermore, this kind of openness to one's own perspective can be developed through deliberate practice. Several approaches may be used.

To begin with, a person can develop the habit of recognizing and exposing his own biases. This could involve something as basic as stating the actual physical situation or circ.u.mstance in which the phenomenon was experienced. For example: the phenomenon could be something seen from above or below, at a distance or nearby; something heard in a quiet room or above the din of background noise; a patient's behavior in a large group or in a small group, with his family, with on particular nurse, with his doctor; a patient's response while being fed, bathed, monitored.

Beyond this unavoidable bias of the angle of perception, the nurse's experience of her lived world may be dulled by habituation. It is necessary to break through the tunnel vision of routine. For instance, a nurse new to a situation may notice a patient's response to her and remark about it to another nurse. The second nurse, to whom the patient's behavior is familiar, may respond, "Oh, he's done that for years." Often this is the end of the dialogue; it should be the beginning, for the duration of a phenomenon is not {81} equal to its description or meaning, but rather, is an indication of its significance.

The mystery of the commonplace is hidden by veils of the obvious. To recognize one's biases means to put one's beliefs, one's cherished notions, out on the table. A helpful aid in reflecting on and articulating an experience is the question, "What am I taking for granted?" Commonly used terms, such as, "psychiatric patient,"

"orthopedic patient," "oncology unit," "uncooperative," "emotional,"

"chronic," "terminal," "hopeless," "outpatient," "ambulatory,"

"visitors," "family," "doctor," "nurse," "administration," "front office" have an aura of connotations that may correspond to or differ greatly from the actual immediate experience. It may be a case where believing is seeing. The habit of premature labeling may close a person to the full savoring of experience.

Another means of increasing openness to one's own perspective is to consciously note whether the phenomenon is being experienced actively or pa.s.sively. For example, the phenomenon may be the motion of changing a patient's position in bed. Both experience the motion, but it is a different experience for the nurse who actively moves the patient and for the patient who is moved pa.s.sively. Or again, many studies of the phenomenon of empathy have been reported in the literature. Almost exclusively, these are descriptions of empathizing with someone; only rarely are they concerned with the experience of being empathized with.

Yet obviously, the active and pa.s.sive experiences of the phenomenon of empathy are different. The same holds true for touching and being touched, bathing and being bathed, feeding and being fed, supporting and being supported, rea.s.suring and being rea.s.sured, and many other phenomena in nursing.

Similarly, awareness of one's perspective may be increased by consciously realizing whether the phenomenon is being viewed objectively or subjectively. Consider for example, phenomena such as pain, anxiety, sleep, restlessness, boredom. Seeing evidence of pain in another person is not the same as feeling pain within myself. Recognizing objective signs of anxiety in another person differs from the subjective experience of feeling anxious myself. Sleeping and observing someone sleeping are two different experiences. The same hold true for restlessness, boredom, and so forth.

In view of nursing's dialogical character it may be a.s.sumed that many phenomena of major concern would be intersubjective or transactional. It is important then for nurses, attempting to develop openness to their own perspectives, to consider whether the phenomenon involves two subjects and their between. Does the action go both ways? Are both persons calling and responding to each other simultaneously? Take the phenomenon of "timing" for example. The nurse's verbal response to a patient depends not only on her perception of her own here-and-now and his perception of his here-and-now but rather it also involves their perceptions of their shared here-and-now situation. The nursing world is filled with intersubjective phenomena such as, eye {82} contact, touch, silence. To describe these fully the nurse must be open to her perspective, the patient's perspective, and their between.

a.n.a.lysis, Synthesis, and Description

After a nursing phenomenon is grasped intuitively, it is desirable to find as many instances of it as possible for the sake of description.

Keeping the phenomenon in mind and reflecting on it from time to time, the nurse becomes more alert to its occurrence in her lived world. The phenomenon may be experienced directly. In which case, it is described and reflected on and descriptions, reflections, and questions are recorded. When she observes the phenomenon in others, the nurse may ask them to describe it and verify her own observations. Some nurses have involved other staff members in discovering and describing instances of the phenomenon being studied. Similarly, one becomes more open to descriptions of it in the literature--any literature--or in any form of human expression, for example, poetry, drama, art, science. As many descriptions of the phenomenon are gathered from as many angles as possible, these are the data to be a.n.a.lytically examined, synthesized, and described.

The three processes of a.n.a.lysis, synthesis, and description are so interrelated and so intertwined in reality that it is simpler to discuss techniques in relation to all three. Some techniques are equally useful in the a.n.a.lytic examination and the description of phenomena. In a sense, a person does both at once. And often, it is during this process of shifting back and forth, a.n.a.lyzing and describing an experience that synthesis occurs. A person gets a sudden insight, "everything falls into place," "it clicks." One gets a gestalt, a whole, not necessarily a whole in the sense of complete and entire, but a whole frame, form, or structure that allows for further developing and filling in of details.

There are many ways of going about the a.n.a.lysis and description. The following are some that have been found useful in the explication of nursing phenomena.

Comparing and contrasting instances of the phenomenon lead to the discovery of similarities and differences. For instance, in studying patients' crying it was found that their crying was with or without tears; loud or silent; expressing pain, anger, fear, sorrow. Or again, silence may be defined simply as absence of sound. But silence as experienced in the real nursing world has other characteristics. It may convey anger, fear, peacefulness, and so forth. It is these nuances or qualities of silence that are significant cues for the nursing dialogue.

They could be brought to light by comparing and contrasting descriptions of silence.

Various instances of the phenomenon being studied may be examined to discover common elements. Characteristics or elements seen in one instance are sought in the others. For example, when descriptions of interpersonal empathy were scrutinized, it became evident that in all cases there were physiological, psychological, and social components.

Examining experiences {83} of rea.s.surance revealed they had elements such as empathy, sympathy, reality orientation, feelings of hope and comfort.

One may determine which elements are essential to the phenomenon by imaginative variation, that is, by trying to imagine the phenomenon without a particular element. For instance, rea.s.surance without empathy or sympathy would be false rea.s.surance or, in other words, would not rea.s.sure.

The elements of the phenomenon can be studied to determine how they are interrelated. One may ask, is there a priority in time? Does one element develop from another? Consider the phenomenon of rea.s.surance; does empathy precede sympathy? Or, to take another example, in the empathic experience, an openness to the other and an imaginative projection into his place lead to the vicarious experiencing of his situation.

For further clarification of its distinctive qualities the phenomenon may be related to and distinguished from other similar phenomena. For example, empathy is similar to and also different from identification, projection, compa.s.sion, sympathy, love, and encounter.

By considering what it has in common with other phenomena, the phenomenon being described may be cla.s.sified as being subsumed in a broader category. Thus, empathy is a human response, a coalescent movement, a form of relating.

The phenomenon may be described by selecting its central or decisive characteristics and abstracting its accidentals. For instance, interpersonal empathy always involves movement into another's perspective and as a form of movement it has directions, dimensions, and degrees. It can occur between persons of difference age, education, experience, s.e.x; these latter characteristics are accidental.

Some descriptions make use of negation. A phenomenon cannot be described completely by negation but it may be clarified to some extent by saying what it is not. For instance, empathy is not sympathy; it is not projection; it is not identification.

a.n.a.logy may be used to promote a.n.a.lytic examination and description.

This involves a comparison based on partial similarity between like features of two things. For example, the movement of empathy is like the currents in the sea; the heart is like a pump. The advantage of using a.n.a.logy is that the comparison raises questions about the nature of the phenomenon under consideration. However, since the similarity between the a.n.a.logues is always partial, one must guard against overextending the comparison to unwarranted conclusions. The description must always be consonant with the phenomenon as it occurs in reality.

The use of a metaphor also may enhance description and a.n.a.lysis. A metaphor suggests comparison of the phenomenon with another by the nonliteral application of a word. For example, "the between is a secret place." The use of metaphor may be criticized in regard to its lack of precision. On the other hand, there are some (for example, Marcel, Buber) who hold that the intersubjective realm can be described only metaphorically because it is {84} beyond the level of objectivity. And to attempt to describe intersubjective phenomena in precise terms related to the physical world would tend to distort rather than clarify.

Many of the nursing phenomena requiring description occur within the intersubjective realm. Metaphors could cast some light on these.

CONCLUSION

As a theory of practice, humanistic nursing is derived from individual nurses' actual experiences in their uniquely perceived but commonly shared nursing world. Its development, therefore, depends on the articulation of their angular views and also on the truly collaborative effort of a genuine community of nurses struggling together to describe humanistic nursing practice.

Since the description of nursing phenomena is recognized as a basic and essential step in theory development, this chapter presented an approach and detailed some techniques used by nurses to describe phenomena. It is hoped that these would be viewed critically and creatively; that they would be used, varied, combined adapted, and lead to new methods suited to the description of nursing phenomena. And if they are developed, it is hoped that they will be shared for the growth of humanistic nursing depends not only on using and sharing what we learn but also on describing how we come to know. Then humanistic nursing theory will grow in dialogue.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Loretta T. Zderad, "A Concept of Empathy" (Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown University, 1968). Josephine G. Paterson, "Echo into Tomorrow: A Mental Health Psychiatric Philosophical Conceptualization of Nursing" (D.N.Sc. dissertation, Boston University, 1969). Loretta T.

Zderad, "Empathy--From Cliche to Construct," _Proceedings of the Third Nursing Theory Conference_ (University of Kansas Medical Center Department of Nursing Education, 1970), pp. 46-75. Josephine G.

Paterson, "From a Philosophy of Clinical Nursing to a Method of Nursology," _Nursing Research_, Vol. XX (March-April, 1972), pp.

143-146. Josephine G. Paterson and Loretta T. Zderad, "All Together Through Complementary Synthesis," _Image_, Vol. IV, No. 3 (1970-71), pp.

13-16.

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8

HUMANISTIC NURSING AND ART

The term "humanistic nursing" often is interpreted as implying humaneness. Logically, humane caring must be one aspect (a major aspect) or a natural expression of humanistic nursing practice theory. But the term means more. According to the position being taken here, nursing may be described appropriately as humanistic since at its very base it is an inter-human event. As an intersubjective transaction, its meaning is found in the human situation in which it occurs. As an existential act, it involves all the partic.i.p.ants' capacities and aims at the development of human potential, that is, at well-being and more-being. Our approach qualifies, then, as a form of humanism, according to the dictionary definition, being "a system or mode of thought or action in which human interests, values, and dignity are taken to be of primary importance."

In another sense of the word, our theoretical stance is humanistic by virtue of its regard for the humanities and arts. Philosophy, literature, poetry, drama, and other forms of art are valued as resources for enriching our knowledge of man and the human situation.

They also are seen as suitable means for expressing or describing the lived realities of the nurse's world.

Contemporary nursing, being a true child of its time, reflects American society's high regard for "Science." Values of science are easily discernible in nursing and affect the character of its research, education, and practice. Consider, for instance, how the nursing dialogue is influenced by the prizing of objectivity, precision of language, operational definitions, scientific jargon, development of constructs and theories, methodology of scientific inquiry, emphasis on quantification and measurement.

There is much more written in our current literature about nursing as a science than about nursing as an art. Although slighted, the humanities have not been rejected. In fact, some nurses and educators are urging that the role {86} of the humanities and arts be recognized in nursing and that they be used more effectively in undergraduate and graduate nursing education.[1]

Turning to my own personal experience, I recall that one of the first definitions I had to learn in my basic nursing program began with the statement, "Nursing is an art and science...." (It is interesting that now, years later, this is all I can recall of the definition!) At that time, I accepted the statement at face value. I did not question it.

Perhaps I had not thought enough about art and science and certainly I did not know enough about nursing to question the description. Yet over the years many experiences and insights have turned into questions that challenge this adopted cherished notion.

In the beginning I merely accepted the view that nursing is an art in the sense of being a skillful or aesthetic application of scientific principles. After all, we had a course in nursing arts (later called fundamentals of nursing). This had to do with bathing, feeding, making beds, and hundreds of other nursing procedures that were presented as "nursing arts," the doing of nursing. At the time I also had courses in the humanities and liberal arts. These courses were not related directly to nursing by either the teachers or myself, as I recall. I did not ask: In what way is nursing an art? What kind of art is nursing? Or, how does the art of nursing differ from other arts?