To offer genuine presence to others, a belief must exist within a person
that such presence is of value and makes a difference in a situation. If
it is a value for a nurse, it will be offered in her nursing situation.
Libraries, concrete buildings bursting with words of great thinkers,
support the value of genuine presence and authentic dialogue between
persons. Consider the literary works that have conveyed or reflected
this message throughout the existence of intellectual man. Plato,
Rousseau, Goethe, Proust, Nietzsche, Whitehead, Jung, May, Frankl,
Hesse, de Chardin, Bergson, Marcel and Buber effortlessly come to mind.
Many nurses are genuine presences in the nursing situation. Some have
tried to share their experiences; some have not. And, there are those
who are not genuine presences in the nursing situation. One wonders if
this has influenced the distinctions nurses have made over the years
with certainty when considering their nurse contemporaries. Often one
hears, "she is a good nurse, a natural." These positive critics are
often up against it when asked, "why, how, what?" Descriptive literary
conceptualizations of nursing that reflect this quality of nurse-being
(presence, intersubjectiveness) call for nurses willing to search out
and bring to awareness, the mysteries of their commonplace, their
familiar, and to appreciate the unique ideas, values, and meanings
fundamental to their practice. Conceptualization of these qualities by
practicing nurses is basic and necessary to the development of a science
and an actualized profession of nursing.