Humanistic nursing and art are interrelated in another way. Some nurses
who are also artists use their respective arts to express their nursing
experience. Poetry is a good example.
In an article, "Nurses as Poets," Trautman notes that since the 1940s
progressively greater numbers of poems about nursing have been published
and since the 1960s the quality of these poems has improved
considerably.[2] She believes that nurses' ability to express their
feelings about nursing in poetry cannot be attributed entirely to a
change in times. Rather, it is a reflection of change in nursing
practice. For one thing, contemporary nursing requires a great deal of
abstract thinking. It calls for an understanding involving mental and
emotional investment, and imaginative feeling _with_ the patient. The
{88} nurse-poet puts aside technical terms, looks at her patient in a
fresh and creative way and shares her view in a poem.
A second reason offered by Trautman is the increased emphasis in nursing
education on communication and verbal skills. A nurse with a talent for
writing may be moved by a particular experience to share it. Thus, "the
sensitive nurse-writer may use poetic expression to work through a
problem, to muse about a detail, or to record a profound experience."[3]
Finally, she states that some nurses write poetry about aspects of their
work that defy scientific analysis and cannot be easily contained in
technical papers. In this, then, nurses' poetry goes beyond the personal
satisfaction accompanying expression; it preserves a unique angular view
of nursing's lived world and adds to our store of clinical wisdom. As
Trautman concludes:
"Poetry has trailed the profession for many years, probably
because nurses were not encouraged in creative writing of any
kind. Today, however, I think that poetry leads the profession
because most of it never loses sight of human needs--both
nurses' and patients'. Our poets lend a clear and vital voice
to our profession. They cite their experiences, emotions,
beliefs, and awareness in lieu of a science-oriented
bibliography. They appeal to our common sense but, more
importantly to our hearts. They tell us to observe honestly and
to feel. Above all, our poets tell us to believe in our
observations and to trust in our feelings--for patients, for
ourselves."[4]
Some elements or aspects of nursing lend themselves to scientific
exploration and discovery while others, equally important and likewise
deserving expression, reveal themselves only through the artist's
vision. So what has been said of poetry, therefore, may hold true in
other arts. Each art has its own form of dialogue with reality. The
painter, for example, feels with his eyes; he feels lines, points,
planes, texture, and color.[5] What could the nurse-painter share? Or as
Garner, a nurse-musician, suggests, nursing could be conceptualized
along the schema of tones, texture, rhythm, meter, intensity,
temperament.[6]
What nursing content would accrue if the various nurse-artists used
their forms of knowledge, skill, and vision to explore nursing as the
various nurse-scientists do? What can our poets, painters, musicians and
dancers see, hear, feel in the nursing dialogue?