Spirituality as a Healing Force

Book Chapter: Spirituality – The Heart of Nursing

Chapter 4: Spirituality as a Healing Force

Description:

Spirituality is a complex phenomenon, the definition of which has occupied the minds of thinkers throughout the centuries. In a recent radio interview the interviewer asked a young Australian doctor currently working in Somalia whether or not many aid workers choose to work in wartorn countries for spiritual reasons. The doctor replied, 'Well, I guess some do go for religious reasons.' The doctor is not alone in assuming that spirituality and religion are synonymous. I suggest, however, that they are not.

What I offer you in this chapter are ideas, not opinions fixed like concrete in my mind, but a glimpse into my ongoing and ever-evolving view of spirituality — what it is and what it implies within the uniqueness of the nurse-client relationship.

Topics:

• Introduction
• Attempting a definition of spirit and spirituality
• Spirituality in concert – The sharing of humanness in the nurse-client relationship
• Spirituality, the sharing of humanness as a healing force
  • Nurse as ordinary person — nurse's perspective
  • Nurse as ordinary person – client perspective
  • Nurse as ordinary person — a relative's perspective
• Is sharing humanness the heart of nursing?
• References

Author:

Jacqueline Kinsey Bambey

RN, RM, BN, DipTh, AIMM

Jacquie Bambery is a registered nurse and midwife with a post-registration Bachelor of Nursing from Deakin University in Geelong, Australia. At the time this chapter was written, she was in her last semester of a Bachelor of Education at La Trobe University in Melbourne and was also undertaking a Diploma of Freelance Journalism through the Australian College of Journalism in Sydney. The holder of a Diploma of Theology, she claims no religious affiliation but has a long-standing interest in the spirituality of all people and finds the teaching of Tibetan Buddhism dynamic and relevant.

Jacquie's background is diverse and includes a number of years on the Spinal Injuries Unit at Austin Hospital in Melbourne where she also set up the first School of Post-Basic Nursing Education. She has both teaching and management experience and is a member of the Australian Institute of Management. Jacquie has also worked in Northern India, running a mobile tuberculosis clinic in the Himalayan foothills. She is currently in private practice which includes community-based pastoral care and a counselling service. She is writing a book, which she hopes will be accepted for publication, about grief and bereavement being a community experience and therefore a community responsibility.

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