The term "humanistic nursing" refers to a kind of nursing practice and
its theoretical foundations. The two are so interrelated that it is
difficult, in fact even somewhat distorting, to speak exclusively of
either the practice or the theory of humanistic nursing. When, for the
sake of clarity or emphasis, discussion is focused on either the
practical or the theoretical realm, thoughts of the other realm cast
their shadows on the fringes. For in our view, for the process of
nursing to be truly humanistic means that the nurse is involved as an
experiencing, valuing, reflecting, conceptualizing human person. From
the other side, the theory of humanistic nursing is derived from actual
practice, that is, from being with and doing with the patient. "Theory,"
says R. D. Laing, "is the articulated vision of experience."[3]
Humanistic nursing is not a matter solely of doing but also of being.
The humanistic nurse is open to the reality of the situation in the
existential sense. She is available with her total being in the
nurse-patient situation. This involves a living out of the nurturing,
intersubjective transaction with all of one's human capacities which
include a response to the experienced reality. Man is able to set his
world at a distance as an independent opposite and enter into relation
with it. In fact, according to Buber, this is what distinguishes
existence as human. It is man's special way of being.[4] For nursing to
be humanistic in this full sense of the term requires being and doing in
the situation and subsequently setting the experienced reality at a
distance (that is, objectifying it) and entering into relation with it.
The nurse's reflective response to her lived world may take the shape of
any form of human dialogue with reality, such as, science, art, or
philosophy.
Viewed existentially, every nursing event is unique, a live
intersubjective transaction colored and formed by the individual
participants. Although the event is ephemeral, the resultant
experiential knowledge is lasting and cumulative. So {18} from the
nurse's daily commonplace grows a body of clinical wisdom. The need for
describing nursing phenomena, for expressing and conceptualizing lived
nursing worlds, is basic to the theoretical and actual development of
humanistic nursing. In summary, we contend that humanistic nursing
practice necessarily involves the conceptualization of that practice and
an examination of its inherent values and that humanistic nursing theory
must be derived from nurses' lived experience. The interwoven theory and
practice are reciprocally enlightening.