Page 172 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

Fr o m C a r at i v e FaC to r 9 to C a r i ta s P r o C e s s 9
and ourselves. In this place, we realize that one person’s level of
humanity reflects back on the other. The other reason this place
of caring and healing transcends medical thinking and conven-
tional science is, when we locate ourselves in this new space, we
are remembering our own and others’ humanity and our shared
belonging to the infinity of Universal Field of Infinite Love
(Levinas 1969) that embraces Spirit. We are remembering we are
touching the life force, the very soul of another person, hence
ourselves.
Watson (2005:61, slightly modiFied)

One of the privileges of nursing and its role in interacting with human-
ity is that nurses have access to the human body. Nurses have the inti-
mate honor of helping others gratify their most basic human needs,
especially when vulnerable. It seems that somewhere along the way
nursing detoured from this connection and forgot that one of the
greatest honors one can have is to take care of another person when in
need. It is the ultimate contribution to society and to people’s human
needs—a gift to civilization (Watson 2005).
As nurses begin to work from a Caritas Consciousness, they take a
sense of sacredness into all aspects of their life and work. It is here that
nurses and nursing “manifest at the highest level” (Dossey, Keegan,
and Guzzetta 2005:231). This view brings us face-to-face with the mys-
tery and infinity of humanity itself and with all life processes. As we
enter this deeper Caritas dimension of our life and work and world, we
understand more deeply the sacredness of Caring and understand that
each act we commit is part of a larger whole.
Martinsen (2006) reminds us of the notion of “dwelling.” Nursing
has a responsibility to attend to that which is more than the satisfaction
of needs and that is related to life-enhancing space, attending to and
creating rooms wherein one can find calm, rest, and “dwell.” Nursing
must do so without robbing the body of calmness and rest, seeking to
avoid invading the room with rapidity and busyness so the other loses
his or her physical and bodily footing and becomes homeless, so to
speak, robbing the body of relations and rhythms (Martinsen 2006:9).
It is the “dwelling” notion (more than just helping to satisfy basic
human needs) that takes on a philosophical view of caring that allows

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