Humanistic Nursing, page 9 by Josephine Paterson
<< Return to Title Details & Download
Purchase this title in paperback at Amazon.com
10
lysis that all interests have become technical rather than human.[6] As health care becomes increasingly commercial the profound experiences of living and dying are discussed in terms of profit and loss. Life itself is the focus of public debates about whether surrogacy involves a whole baby being bought and sold or only half of a baby, since one half already "belongs" to the natural father and so he cannot buy what he already owns.
We have many choices before us: to adopt the values of commerce and redesign health care systems accordingly; to accept competition as the modus operandi or insist on other measures for people in need; to decide who will be cared for, who won't, who will pay, and how much?
Perhaps it is time for us to turn away from the exchange between buyers and sellers, providers and consumers; and turn back to an exchange between two people trying to understand the space they share. Perhaps it is time for a shared dialogue with patients for whom the questions are most vital? Perhaps we need to hear their call and respond authentically. Perhaps they need to hear ours? For only then, as Paterson and Zderad have made quite clear, will our lived experiences in health care have any real meaning.
Patricia Moccia PHD, RN Associate Professor and Chair Department of Nursing Education Teachers College Columbia University
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Azanian Freedom Song. Lyrics by Otis Williams, music by Bernice Johnson Reagon. Washington, DC: Songtalk Publishing Co., 1982.
[2] Frankl, Viktor. Man's Search For Meaning. Boston: Beacon Press, 1959.
[3] Rukeyser, Muriel. "Kathe Kollwitz," in By a Woman Writ, ed. Joan Goulianos. New York: Bobbs Merrill, 1973, p. 374.
[4] Bohm, David. Wholeness and the Implicate Order. London: Ark, 1980.
[5] Newman, Margaret. Health As Expanding Consciousness. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby Company, 1986.
[6] Habermas, Jurgen. Knowledge and Human Interest, (trans. J. S