Caress, caring and caregiver:
The power of healing hands
What is a caress? The word
caress signifies an expression or act of kindness. It is a term of endearment,
as in to love or to cherish. The word caress depicts charity, as in a
charitable act. (1)
The love of God and love of one
another is a part of every caress.
The professional caress by
registered nurses can reflect all of the above, but registered nurses also
caress the hearts, minds and lives of patients everywhere, while caring for
them. Everyone needs the caress of a
caring caregiver, at one time or another, during his or her lifetime. This can
be a gentle touch by the hands of a registered nurse. The professional caress
demonstrated in nursing care of patients, reveals the power of healing hands to
help, to heal or to comfort a patient who is sick, suffering or dying.
What is caring?
Caring signifies the expression
to feel or to be troubled about something. It also refers to a degree of
concerted interest or concern. (2)
Many registered nurses feel the
angst, pain and suffering of their patients, in different ways. As professional
caregivers, they feel for their patients. They may be troubled by the pain,
unrest and discomfort that they perceive in patients who are ill, injured or
hurting. Registered nurses take a
serious interest in patients and their families, their overall health status
and general well being. They are legitimately concerned about patients
personally, their medical prognoses and their quality of life.
Registered nurses are caring
people.
Patients are hurting people, who need healing, medical help or other
kinds of health related assistance. As an expression of caring, registered
nurses attempt to assist those in need of their professional help. When
registered nurses see patients requiring the kind of medical assistance that
they are qualified, able and trained to give, they respond by carrying out the
nursing care that is deemed to be appropriate for each unique scenario.
What is a caregiver?
The word caregiver signifies a
person, who gives care to another person. (3)
In terms of nursing, this means
providing professional nursing care. Offering and tendering appropriate nursing
care to patients is one of the earmarks of a professional caregiver. Nursing is a caring discipline.
Consider these three aspects of caring for a moment.
Caring about someone:
Caring about someone is
important in terms of healing, health and wholeness. The happiness of patients
is contingent upon having others care about them. Registered nurses care about
patients and their families.
Caring for someone:
For registered nurses, caring
for someone involves taking care of patients, who are in need of care. It is
not just about caring for oneself, although that is essential, too. Registered
nurses care for their patients by providing professional mental, emotional,
spiritual and physical nursing care, when and where it is necessary.
Caring with someone:
Caring with someone suggests
that in a professional health care environment, where nursing care is needed by
patients, no one stands alone. Registered nurses work together with one
another and other health care professionals, to help resolve medical or health
related issues and concerns.
Who cares?
Many patients think, feel and believe that no one cares about them.
Professional registered nurses show that they care in many different ways.
Consider two distinctly different caring models, namely the caring tree or
the caring circle: Ask yourself, if there is a
difference. Which model is more appropriate for professional nursing care?
The caring tree model:
In a caring tree nursing care
model, one patient is alone, at the top of the tree. He or she is cared for,
nurtured and sustained by all of those included in the tree trunk, the branches
and the limbs. That means that all of the caregivers, regardless of their
status in any other part of the tree, are continually directed towards caring
for just one individual. Their focus is only on the person at the top of the
tree. There is no care or concern for anyone else.
The caring circle model:
In a caring circle nursing care
model, the caring environment is like that of the pebble effect, evidenced
when a pebble skims across a body of water. As the pebble bounces off the
water, it creates an ever enlarging series of concentric rings. At the center
of each ring is an individual, but the individual is part of a couple, family,
group, community, country, world and universe. What happens to one patient
affects, involves and concerns everyone else in the entire circle, as they are
all part of the collective whole. This could be referred to as a
wholological/ holological approach to nursing care. (4)
The more appropriate
model for professional nursing care is the caring circle model.
Professional nursing care
involves these three aspects of caring: sharing, problem solving and
responsibility.
Caring is sharing.
Caring for patients means
sharing with them. This means sharing a moment of time, the information
and knowledge that would be of benefit to patients or the nursing care needed
to assist them on their way to health and wellness.
Caring is problem solving.
Professional nurses, working in
conjunction with doctors, other registered nurses, family members or other
health professionals, frequently resolve many different kinds of problems,
issues and concerns regarding their patients.
Caring is assuming the
responsibility to act.
The onus is on professional
registered nurses to act, in whatever capacity nursing care action is deemed to
be appropriate, with respect to the situation at hand. Nursing carries the
responsibility to act on behalf of patients.
In conclusion, one must suggest
that the hands of registered nurses are caring hands and hands demonstrating the
power of love to heal others through the caress of caring caregivers.
1. Webster's Ninth New
Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield , Mass.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. The wholological/holological
model is one that I developed and introduced in 1983, while taking a Religious
Studies course, at McMaster University , Hamilton ,
Ontario
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