This issue deals with Caring Competencies for a Complex Healthcare Environment. This is an important topic in an era where many marketing slogans talk about caring, but the focus of most organizations seems to be on everything except caring. Caring does not just happen, and we often take it for granted. Getting more done with less is our focus. Multitasking and doing more faster is the life many experience in healthcare, and it seems to be so in our home lives as well. When we are multitasking, how often have we missed a vital part of a conversation, or had to redo a task or deal with the consequences of doing something wrong? These consequences are a result of being in a hurry and not truly being present.
Have you ever heard the saying "slow down to produce more"? This is about identifying and responding to those moments during the day when you truly need to be present, such as setting up medications for a patient, conducting a critical procedure, conversing with a staff member, or attending to a child at home. These are moments when we should not be multitasking and truly need to focus on the present, the task, or the person we are with. We need to take the time to care. This is true in caring for patients and their families, as well as for us as leaders to care for our staff and ourselves.
Somehow we have gotten the message that it is not ok to care. Do not get too involved, too close, do not become vulnerable. In other words, detach yourself from the situation, the patient, or your staff. Stay isolated and just do what you need to do. It is time to change this assumption. It is OK to care, to be involved to connect with your patient, your staff, and your loved ones at home. Work is important, but it is only part of life. In nursing, we are losing touch with what is truly important because of the ever-increasing demands that the work place (and ourselves) has put on us. When will we realize that we cannot be everything to everybody? We cannot do it all. Life is too important and precious to let it pass by. We are called to engage in life, feel life, care, and enjoy everyday.
In the article, in this issue on Evoking the Essence of Caring, I was there first on the scene, deep in the Andes, holding my colleague in my arms as I experienced nurses evoking the essence of caring. There was no multitasking, there was no assumption of dialogue, there was just being present and pure love and caring. We were all improvising with what we had to do to save a life. That is nursing and that is the essence of a nursing leader.
This issue on Caring Competencies was such a topic of interest that too many articles were received for one issue. So we have expanded this topic to be covered in 2 consecutive issues so you will have an opportunity to read all that is happening in the field. Enjoy.
Philip Authier, MPH, RN
Guest Editor, Partner, Edgework Institute, Grand Rapids, Mich