Page 102 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

t h eoret ic al Fra m e w o r k F or C ar it as/c ari n g rel at i on s h i p
pattern recognition. It includes perceptions and what I would call the
“phenomenal field”—the subjective and intersubjective meanings of
both participants. Thus, any phenomenon has to be viewed as a whole,
not as an additive sum of the parts to make a whole. These notions of
interconnection, as well as holographic unitary views of the universe,
are consistent with the theoretical dimensions of a transpersonal car-
ing relationship. Newman’s views of “health as expanding conscious-
ness” and Martha Rogers’s Unitary Science (Rogers 1970, 1994) are
consistent with Caritas Consciousness in that caring and love call upon
higher levels of consciousness for professional nursing and make con-
nections between caring and healing/health/wholeness outcomes,
transcending conventional outcomes of curing alone.
A transpersonal caring relationship is guided by an evolving Caritas
Consciousness. It conveys a concern for the inner life world and subjec-
tive meaning of another; that other is fully embodied, that is, embod-
ied spirit. The notion of transpersonal invites full loving-kindness and
equanimity of one’s presence-in-the-moment, with an understanding
that a significant caring moment can be a turning point in one’s life. It
affects both nurse and patient and radiates out beyond the moment,
connecting with the universal field of infinity to which we all belong
and in which we dwell. Thus, the moment lives on.
Such an authentic spirit-to-spirit connection in a given moment
transcends the personal ego level of professional control and opens
the nurse’s intelligent heart and head to what is really emerging
and presenting itself in the now-moment. The transpersonal Caritas
Consciousness nurse is more open, responsive, and sensitive to what
is occurring—more able to “read the field,” to pick up on subtleties
in the field, to use all resources and draw upon all ways of knowing:
empirical-technical, ethical, intuitive, personal, aesthetic, even spiri-
tual knowing.
She or he is more able to enter into and stay within the other per-
son’s frame of reference; to shift from the functional, often routine, set
procedure, agenda, or task and “see” and “hear” verbal and nonverbal
cues; to attend to what is most important for the person behind the
patient and the procedure. The nurse is alert and responsive to what is
present and emerging for the other in this given-now-moment.

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