The Healer's Art

It has taken two and a half years of hard work, tears, laughter, and sleep deprivation for me to finally understand what was meant by the BYU School of Nursing's motto: "Learning the Healer's Art." This new-found understanding, however, has changed everything for me about what it means to carry my newly acquired title of Registered Nurse.
The first aspect of learning the healers art is learning to heal others as the savior did, physically.
There are many examples in the scriptures of Christ healing the sick those who are sick including the Leper and the woman with an issue of blood. We know that he caused the lame to walk and the blind to see. Inherent in nursing is the physical healing of those who are sick--that is typically what comes to mind when you think of nursing: medication, IV's, blood etc. Learning to physically heal the body was the major focus of nursing school and a very important aspect of my education.

However, Learning the Healer's Art extends far beyond healing other physically. Hospitals have a unique way of stripping you down, and not only of your clothes but your dignity. As a nurse, I care for people who are often in the most vulnerable position of their lives. Most of my patients are tired, scared, heartbroken, and unable to do much for themselves. All this, in addition to be sick causes people to act out of their usual character.

Thus, Learning the Healer's art also means not being too quick to judge, learning to see my patients how the Lord sees and love them, and then using the spirit to help me to heal. Christ has the power to heal any wound, spiritual or physical as was said in Matthew 4:23 that he went about "healing ALL manner of sickness and all manner of disease." Allowing the savior to lift our burdens and provide comfort is a very important part of the healing process. However, as a nurse, I am not playing a missionary role, so how do I help patients to feel that healing without preaching to them the gospel of Jesus Christ?

I can be an instrument in his hands, as he often uses other people to answer the prayers of his children and take care of them. For example, there have been times when I have felt a prompting to go into a room and check on a patient, even though the monitors indicate otherwise--only to find minutes later that the patient began to crash, and I was in the right place at the right time. Or, I have also felt that we should keep a certain patient one more day in the hospital, even though the doctor is ready to send them home. Or, in a much smaller way, it is not uncommon to me to feel that I should share a certain thought with the patient, or bring up something that I may have not done otherwise. Following these promptings can often be difficult to do in the rush of the large workload. Nurses are very weighed down with paperwork and it can be easy to get caught up in the mundane tasks, and not focus enough on the patient, but being in tune with the spirit, and trying to serve and love them as the savior would is all part of Learning the Healer's Art.

When you are very emotionally involved in patient situations, it is very spiritually exhausting. I finally have come to understand how nurses can become hard and calloused. It is a means of protecting themselves from the emotional burdens that they deal with every single day. It is very stressful and demanding work, and not surprisingly, is the job with the highest burnout rate. I don't want to ever become that hardened nurse though, I want my patients to know how much I care, which will require a eternal perspective on life and our purpose here.

However, though it is challenging, and emotionally exhausting, I love being a nurse. What other job do you feel like you are getting paid to serve the Lord, and do you have such a large opportunity to impact the lives of others. I have met so many incredible and strong people who have strengthened and enriched my life and helped me to better understand the human experience. And even though I cried my whole way through nursing school in joy, frustration, and lack of sleep, I love my career and am proud to be a nurse.

I am still new though, and have much to learn. Almost everyone has had some experience, good and bad, with nurses. Please, please, share with me your stories. What did you like that your nurse did, what do you wish that they would have done differently, what should I never under any circumstances do as a nurse? Did you hate that the nurse carried in the syringe waving it in front of your face, or maybe you wished that the nurse wouldn't talk to you like you were 12? Please share, these are the type of things that I didn't learn in school and I want to know now, complete with details. Help me to be better, please!