Dignity for All: Building a Culture of Human Rights
October 2008
Banner photo: © Carr Clifton
Nursing: The Spirit of Care
Marcy Newman, from Canada, is a licensed Practical Nurse who has worked for 34 years in a variety of departments. For the past three years she has worked on an HIV ward in a hospital in Vancouver where many of her patients are drug addicts and homeless people.
Pedro Soares, from Portugal, has 11 years of nursing experience in elderly care and palliative care, which concentrates on relieving suffering for people facing serious illness rather than striving to halt or reverse the progression of the disease. He currently works in a cancer center in Lisbon.
What are the keys to being a good nurse? How do you strive to develop your own capacity in this regard?
Pedro Soares: It's important to study in order to develop one's human and technical skills, but that study should be motivated by a desire to value and respect each person, regardless of their health condition: nursing is not about accumulating knowledge which, in practical terms, may not have a significant impact on the well-being of the patient.
Marcy Newman: After many years of working I look back and admire many fellow nurses who are so kind, considerate and empathetic to their patients. Listening to patients is also a characteristic of a good nurse. My Buddhist practice has helped me naturally develop all of these characteristics.
What is the most challenging aspect of your work?
Pedro: It's a great challenge to keep motivated and confident in order to always feel hopeful and transmit hope and encouragement to the patients and their families. Another challenge is to work in a team that, traditionally, is focused mainly on the activity of doctors.
I'm currently part of a multidisciplinary project that unites doctors, nurses, social workers and psychologists, and that has as its goal to galvanize the joint efforts of these teams so as to achieve the most effective treatment for the patients and their families. I must say that it's very fulfilling when I'm able to establish a relationship of genuine empathy amongst doctors, nurses and patients.
Marcy: The most challenging part of my job is that our society hasn't figured out how to help people overcome addiction. Therefore, as nurses we are trying to treat one of many AIDS-related illnesses while patients continually sabotage their own care by leaving and using drugs. It's like putting a band-aid on the carotid artery.
What were your reasons for entering the nursing profession?
Marcy: Empathy for friends who were sick in hospital when I was in high school drew me to visit them. Because of this I decided that maybe I would be a good nurse.
Pedro: It was never a vocational thing or childhood dream. My mother was a nurse, and I was well aware of the physical and mental toll that this job entails, so I didn't have a good impression of this job nor the desire to do it.
At the end of high school, I was going through a period of indecision regarding my professional future when a friend invited me to volunteer at a big hospital in Lisbon, Portugal's capital. I can't explain why I accepted the invitation, but I went, and after that experience I had a strong desire to work in the health-care field. That's how I started on the path of being a nurse.
How has the philosophy of Buddhism, particularly its perspectives on the nature of life and death, influenced your approach to your work?
Marcy: Learning the Buddhist perspective on life and death has encouraged me to never take life for granted. When I know that death is imminent, I try to find time alone with the person and connect with them heart to heart.
Pedro: My Buddhist practice helps keep me resilient and able to support patients and their families who are confronting complex and difficult situations.
Buddhism has also inspired me to delve deeper into the questions of life and to strive to understand these issues with my life, rather than just in terms of intellectual concepts. I feel it's given me a deeper understanding of life. I have gradually come to feel that the life of the individual coexists with the universe, and this is a reassuring thought. I have learned to stop running from death and suffering.
I have also become less pessimistic at work, and I'm no longer defeated by feelings of despair and a desire to escape.
How important is it to enable patients to feel their dignity and sense of self even in situations where they are very helpless? How do you try to do this?
Pedro: I focus on embracing and supporting patients, and not giving in to despair. I am often overcome with fear and feelings of impotence, especially when facing the most extreme cases, but I don't want to imagine how things would be if I gave up. Therefore, I continue to try to do my best with a feeling of joy and hope.
Marcy: When patients are helpless, I think the best way to help them keep their dignity and sense of self is to let them know that I am an advocate for them by listening to them and communicating their wishes to the rest of the team. I try to become their voice for them.
How do you stay positive when surrounded by people who are seriously ill?
Marcy: My Buddhist practice has made it natural for me to be positive regardless of the situation. Most often I find it more difficult to stay positive around other nurses who are negative and have lost their empathy or compassion for others.
Pedro: My Buddhist practice is very important in helping me keep my conviction intact and keep conscious, competent and compassionate.
"People who are sick always have to deal with inner turmoil of some kind. They carry on a painful inner dialogue with themselves about their illness, posing questions that they then try to answer. Just by listening to a sick person articulate this inner conflict and pain, we can relieve some of his or her suffering . . . There is no one who is a stranger to sickness. Only when society extends the warm spirit of nursing to all will we have a healthy society."
--From SGI President Ikeda's dialogues with members of the Soka Gakkai nurses group.
