Positive Health Online

Abstract

HALL, University of Texas as Austin, USA outlines a critique of existing knowledge regarding spirituality, gleaned from data and insights during 10 years of research and practice regarding the psychosocial and spiritual aspects of living with HIV, and proposes an alternative model especially relevant to nurses.

Background

Methodology

Results

The author writes that nurses are in an excellent position to experience the human spirit and can use such insights to be present with others and to become more self-aware and self-loving. Professional objectivity and application of professional knowledge were anathema to self-discovery, as the author was taught by patients and research participants and her philosophy and personal rules for understanding the spirit are presented in this paper. A critique of certain confining aspects of nursing theory, particularly those built upon developmental frameworks, is presented. This shows how our vision is skewed negatively ty such frameworks and how such practices may cause nurse to look down at patients rather than treat them as equals.

Conclusion

References

Hall BA. Spirituality in terminal illness. An alternative view of theory. J Holist Nur 15(1): 82-96. Mar 1997.