Healing Presence: The Essence of Nursing » (1st Edition)

JoEllen Koerner, PhD, RN, FAAN, and CEO, NurseMetriX, is an author, editor, speaker, researcher, educator, and nurse executive leader of international renown. She is the Past President of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) and 2005 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the AONE Institute for Patient Care Research & Education. With extensive executive level management and leadership experience in health care administration, education, regulation, and e-commerce, her initial career efforts focused on nursing education and service in corporate health systems. She then worked in virtual education with curriculum modeling and delivery at the intersection of the philosophy and practice of professional nursing.

As Founder and CEO of NurseMetriX, Dr. Koerner designed applications of corporate, scientific and information technology for web-based innovations in the nursing profession. Her international and voluntary work is focused on workforce development for underrepresented sectors of society.

This revised, updated, and refocused edition presents the latest perspectives on the nature and character of the art of healing in nursing. It offers readers a blueprint for how to artistically weave authentic presence into daily clinical nursing practice patterns. It includes firsthand reflections and observations by holistic healing leaders that expands on traditional viewpoints of the healer's presence in facilitating health and wholeness. It is an in ideal resource for nurse educators, students, and practitioners.

Key Features:

• Examines the Nursing Triad of Compassionate Caring
  
• Presents a contemporary view of nursing's "Ways of Knowing"
  
• Integrates nursing with cutting-edge integrative medicine
  
• Provides a Web-based Values Assessment Tool that is co-created with the American Association of Critical Care Nursing and Home Healthcare Nurses Association
  

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Vicki Ann Moss, DNSc, MS, BSN, RN(University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh)
Description:The author explores ways -- scientific, creative, and spiritual -- that the nurse can use to understand and implement the "healing presence" both for patients and for self. "It is a celebration of the human spirit that is manifest everywhere [nurses] practice," the author states.
Purpose:The purpose of this book is to place 21st century nursing into a paradigm "that transcends the economic, political, and technological culture of the day," and to invite nurses to remember why they were initially called to the profession.
Audience:Nurses and nursing student are the audience.
Features:The 10 chapters are grouped into four sections: Nursing: A Sacred Work; The Healing Field: The Context for Nursing Practice; A Healing Presence: The Power of One; and A Healing Path: Weaving a Purposeful Life. The book includes sayings and poems of some of the finest minds such as Mother Theresa, Einstein, and Carl Jung, as well as Eastern and Western philosophical thought.
Assessment:This book would appeal to any nurse who wants to learn and reflect on the spiritual aspect of nursing. It would be a good book to use as a stepping-stone to discussion about issues that are not black and white. I would suggest it be read slowly, perhaps one chapter at a time followed by reflection. It is not a book that could be skimmed or read quickly. It should make all nurses more aware of the meaning of their presence and the healing power of that presence to others. It is a much-needed book as technology continues to expand and a patient's humanity often becomes of secondary importance to their cure.

Preface: An Invitation

Acknowledgments

Foreword: Reflections of a Nurse Healer by Julie MacDonald

Section I: Introduction


1. Nursing: A Sacred Work


Section II: The Healing Field: The Context for Nursing Practice


2. The Noetic Scientist: A Holistic Worldview


3. The Creative Artist: Composing a Life


4. The Human Essence: Unfolding Inner Potential


Section III: A Healing Presence: The Power of One


5. Vibrant Health: The Path of Balance


6. Quantum Healing: The Path of Integration


7. Heaing Presence: The Path of Engagement


Section IV: A Healing Path: Weaving a Purposeful Life


8. Authentic Living: The Path of Becoming


9. Healing Virtues: Expressions of the Soul


10. Healing Web: Weaving the Web of Life


Afterword

Glossary of Terms

Index