Page 92 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

F r o m ca ra t i v e F a c t o r 3 t o C a r i t a s P r o C e s s 3
not define who we are. We have thoughts; we have feelings; we have a
body; but we are more than our thoughts, our feelings, and our body.
We are embodied spirit. Or, as Teilhard de Chardin reminded us, we
are spiritual beings having an earthly experience.
If a nurse is not sensitive to her or his own feelings, it is difficult
to be sensitive to another. It is when we are unaware, unreflective
about self and life, that we harden our self to the feelings of others
and close down our hearts, making us insensitive and even cruel—
just when others may be most in need of our loving-kindness, con-
cern, compassion, and sensitivity. When this occurs the nurse often
forms detached professional relationships, camouflaging potential
conflicts and even contributing to a toxic situation or an unhealthy
work environment.
While the Carative Factor of sensitivity is core, it is enhanced and
serves as the foundation for spiritual growth, maturity, and reflective
and mindful practices when expanded to Caritas Consciousness; thus,
this third Caritas Process extends the third factor’s meaning and focus.
This process and factor cannot be taken for granted, so they need to be
identified as the core of professional human-to-human relationships
and caring-healing practices. All of these factors and evolved processes
overlap and are holographic in nature, in that each one resides within
the whole of the other and the whole of the Caring Science paradigm
resides within each of the factors/processes.

eduCational note/reminder
In many ways, the third, fourth, and fifth Carative Factors, re-revised
and reframed as Caritas Processes, can be combined. They are all part
of a holographic whole; they are all mutually interdependent. They
each, in their own way, speak to human ontological relational aspects
of the nurse’s development of self to be in Caritas Consciousness, to
practice Caritas Nursing. All of these dimensions are necessary to
enact a living philosophy, theory, and ethic that seek to sustain profes-
sional caring-healing in relation with self and other. For intellectual-
conceptual organizational purposes, however, I have identified them
as separate factors/processes in that I think, in their own way, each
merits attention and discussion. However, they all are interactive and

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