Page 173 - 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
one to “see with the heart’s eye,” “emphasizing the importance of
being seen in such a way that one becomes significant to the one who
sees” (Martinsen 2006:11).
When considering basic needs and administering Caritas Nursing
as a sacred act as opposed to a physical task alone, human beings are
cared for in a loving, kind way in which they feel secure and safe and
protected. The Caritas Nurse creates space and places for “dwelling,”
whereby the “body inhabits the room in a good way . . . the body is
able to embrace experiences as [dignifying] life sustaining, in the midst
of pain and suffering; letting the human dwell” (Martinsen 2006:16).
This view of “dwelling,” from Foucault (1975), addresses the
hospital or sickroom, whereby the nurse helps another person move
beyond the professional “gaze” (the “case” mentality) to the notion of
creating an individual dwelling space for healing. This view is in con-
trast to architecture and rooms in hospitals that possess “innumerable
petty mechanisms, flawless instrumentations to objectify and control
the individual’s totality, leaving them stripped and naked to the gaze of
others [the professionals]” (Foucault quoted in Martinsen 2006:16).
In this model of Caritas Nursing, one makes explicit that when
touching another person, you are not touching just the body physical
but also the embodied spirit. Indeed, when a nurse touches another per-
son, she or he is touching not only the body but also the other’s mind,
the other’s heart, and the other’s soul—the other’s very life source.
From Nightingale forward, nursing and nursing leaders have long
recognized that the physical body is not the “eternal aspect” of human
nature but the “vehicle” of the spirit or soul essence of the human per-
son that dwells within the body physical (Macrae 2001). Nevertheless,
tending to the body physical has often become the focus of patient
care. In this model the care needs and approaches of physical-non-
physical care cannot be separated from the web of other relation-
ships—social, environmental, ecological, systems, spiritual, and oth-
erwise (Jarrin 2006).
My original (1979) work related to this Carative Factor organized
basic needs into lower- and higher-order needs, using Maslow’s theory
as a template. However, this revised version of the book will not order
this chapter using that outdated framework. I continue to organize

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