On the Humanities in Nursing

Authors

  • Myra E. Levine

Abstract

Nursing is a humanitarian enterprise. The emphasis placed on scientific and technical knowledge is indispensable to the development of the craft - but it is imperfectly achieved without the intellectual skills that are the special province of the humanities. The humanities invite both introspection and participation. Poet, novelist, essayist, storyteller - all provide the language of memory and anticipation, a sharing which belongs to each alone but speaks in a voice heard and understood by many. The written word is a lifeline to the historical past, and with it the rediscovery of reality as described and celebrated by the creative spokespersons of their times. Here is recorded how human beings have confronted their world, some of it intimate and familiar and some of it strange and foreign. Expressions of human experience are transmitted across generations to speak their mysteries again and again. But these voices have been silent in the eduction of nurses. Racing through curricula which seek to be all-inclusive, there is seldom time for courses in philosophy or literature or history or music. However efficient the education of nurses in disciplines of science, a large void remains. Nurses are adept in their practice, but do not have the language and reading and thinking skills that are the basis of a liberal education. This failure, a failure of literacy, not only deprives the individual of precious gifts, but it isolates nurses from other professional health colleagues, and ultimately limits the depth and meaning of the profession itself.

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Published

1999-04-13

Issue

Section

Articles