What I Want My Nurse to Know -- RNs Learning from Chaplains
LInda Golding, MA, BCC, Staff Chaplain, Coordinator Pastoral Services Milstein Hospital, New York- Presbyterian Hospital
Patricia Punzalan, RN, MA, Patient Care Director, Neurosurgery Unit, New York-Presbyterian Hospital
New York-Presbyterian Nursing Management partnered with the Department of Pastoral Care & Education to create and pilot a six session engagement project titled WHAT I WANT MY NURSE TO KNOW in order to explore, in clinical interactions, the similarities and differences in how our nurses and how our chaplains engage with patients and the ways in which these techniques improve engagement with patients and with each other. The pilot was designed to learn if and in what ways our nurse cohort would be able to integrate and apply relevant chaplaincy techniques of engagement in order to keep alive or even re-kindle the flame of passion that drives people into health care and the impact of peer mentoring. The title represents the underlying question -- "What do I, the patient, want my nurse to know about me as a human being, something more than what will to be found in the medical chart?"
This workshop will present the methodology developed for introducing new and experienced nurses to the discipline and practice of hospital based pastoral care, the questionnaires and short essays completed by the nurses both before and after the project, and the structure and content of clinical debriefings after each visit. The project syllabus will also be presented, and an interactive component will encourage participants to use the syllabus as a starting point to elaborate their own ideas about nursing engagement.
WHAT I WANT MY NURSE TO KNOW involved nurses individually shadowing the chaplain, trying out new skills during their patient care and reflecting on how these did or did not impact their ability to engage with their patients; and the chaplain then shadowing the nurses to observe and mentor the implementation of newly expanded techniques. The nurses each acted as a resource to their colleagues.
Engaging with patients is at the core of holistic nursing education. Nursing students are exposed to lectures and readings designed to introduce them to existential concerns of patients, families and care providers each of whom is living with or surrounded by illness. They actively practice the skills of engagement on during their internships. But once a nurse launches a professional career the holistic container of training can begin to fall away, prey to a taxing patient care load and pressures of time and documentation. This falling away can drain the reservoir of inner resources of caring and compassion that drove the desire for a nursing career and distance the nurse from the human being in the room.
Chaplain training is an experiential style of learning about hope, meaning and connection and how these change as illness changes and as death approaches. The style of learning also offers a systematic and generalizable method of teaching self-care, self-awareness, and boundary maintenance in the hospital setting.
As a result of this pilot, WHAT I WANT MY NURSE TO KNOW has become a regular part of the New York-Presbyterian's ongoing investment in patient-centered care and nursing training.
Patricia Punzalan, RN, MA, Patient Care Director, Neurosurgery Unit, New York-Presbyterian Hospital
New York-Presbyterian Nursing Management partnered with the Department of Pastoral Care & Education to create and pilot a six session engagement project titled WHAT I WANT MY NURSE TO KNOW in order to explore, in clinical interactions, the similarities and differences in how our nurses and how our chaplains engage with patients and the ways in which these techniques improve engagement with patients and with each other. The pilot was designed to learn if and in what ways our nurse cohort would be able to integrate and apply relevant chaplaincy techniques of engagement in order to keep alive or even re-kindle the flame of passion that drives people into health care and the impact of peer mentoring. The title represents the underlying question -- "What do I, the patient, want my nurse to know about me as a human being, something more than what will to be found in the medical chart?"
This workshop will present the methodology developed for introducing new and experienced nurses to the discipline and practice of hospital based pastoral care, the questionnaires and short essays completed by the nurses both before and after the project, and the structure and content of clinical debriefings after each visit. The project syllabus will also be presented, and an interactive component will encourage participants to use the syllabus as a starting point to elaborate their own ideas about nursing engagement.
WHAT I WANT MY NURSE TO KNOW involved nurses individually shadowing the chaplain, trying out new skills during their patient care and reflecting on how these did or did not impact their ability to engage with their patients; and the chaplain then shadowing the nurses to observe and mentor the implementation of newly expanded techniques. The nurses each acted as a resource to their colleagues.
Engaging with patients is at the core of holistic nursing education. Nursing students are exposed to lectures and readings designed to introduce them to existential concerns of patients, families and care providers each of whom is living with or surrounded by illness. They actively practice the skills of engagement on during their internships. But once a nurse launches a professional career the holistic container of training can begin to fall away, prey to a taxing patient care load and pressures of time and documentation. This falling away can drain the reservoir of inner resources of caring and compassion that drove the desire for a nursing career and distance the nurse from the human being in the room.
Chaplain training is an experiential style of learning about hope, meaning and connection and how these change as illness changes and as death approaches. The style of learning also offers a systematic and generalizable method of teaching self-care, self-awareness, and boundary maintenance in the hospital setting.
As a result of this pilot, WHAT I WANT MY NURSE TO KNOW has become a regular part of the New York-Presbyterian's ongoing investment in patient-centered care and nursing training.