JoEllen Koerner, RN On Healing Presence

By Terri Pauser Wolf, RN, BSN
May 9, 2005

Q: What are you working on at this time?

I’m coming full circle back to the bedside with tools and techniques that nurses can use to expand their capacity. Nurses require continuous learning throughout their careers and that task is generally in the hands of education staff. I’ve been working on creating the tools that link nurses to the information they need in real time. This is only a part of the equation. Technology and evidence-based practice are important for competent practice and patient safety, but there is one more element that I want to tell nurses about.

Q: What element of practice can nurses use to improve care?

The new frontier is bringing healing presence back into the work of nursing to balance a system that is out of control. First, we need to stop treating nurses like replaceable parts and realize that the true healing environment is the nurse. Patients are crying for the presence of nurses. They’re looking for someone to just listen to them…to tell their stories, their secrets.

My emphasis on healing presence comes from my work with the Lakota Sioux Indians that started when my daughter was near death from a kidney problem. Wanagi Waci, a Lakota Sioux healer, talks about energy and the need for the universe to always be in balance. We’re facing a time where there is terrible violence and a global imbalance. Energy is at the core of creating balance, according to Waci. I believe that the global nursing community is in the ideal position to draw on our healing energy to create balance.

Q: How is a single bedside nurse able to bring balance to our world?

Nurses can find the healing energy of presence by remembering that this profession is a calling. We need to do a lot of internal work to find answers that will help us be present with patients. Nurses can start by asking themselves these questions: Why am I in nursing? What is my intention in being here? When we get in touch with our mission as nurses, it is so powerful for our patients and ourselves.

Q: What can nurses do to recapture healing presence?

In addition to assessing their call to the profession, nurses can consider how the mind works in two ways. One is the concrete mind which is about doing things right. It’s the mind that is concerned with the science and competency of what we do. It’s tiring to continuously engage this part of the mind always searching for THE answer. The other is our active mind or higher intelligence, which incorporates intuition when making decisions. It’s tapping into this area of the mind that allows us to be present with patients and to provide a higher level of care.

Another way to look at this is through the example of the novice and expert. A novice will assess the obvious while an expert is assessing the subtleties. Healing presence is that space where the expert nurse “just knows” that something is different with the patient even if she doesn’t have the data in hand to prove it. True healing occurs at this subtle energy level.

Q: What do you see that the bedside nurse can do to help a system that is out of balance?

Nurses need to practice the self-care necessary so they can be present with patients. Their own energies need to be balanced and they need to realize the value in their work. We are at an incredible turning point in nursing and we have the ability to affect change through skills that we already possess. We also need to know that we are already doing the work and to continue to do so without expectation of the outcome.