The notion (perhaps "conviction" would be more accurate) that nursing is an art in some sense other than an artful application of scientific principles has been with me for a long time. I do not know its origin nor even the form in which the view first appealed to me. I do recall having difficulty on several occasions in trying to express let alone explain, my idea. At these times, what I experienced subjectively as an intuitive flash of insight would end up objectified in an amorphous blob of words. Yet the theme returns over and over in a variety of questions and issues that demand response if not resolution. This chapter offers some further reflections on the relatedness of humanistic nursing and art.
USE OF ARTS
One of the most obvious ways in which nursing and art are related is in nursing's use of the arts. This may be seen in nursing education as well as in nursing practice.
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Liberalization
Usually, when arts and humanities are included in nursing education programs, it is for their humanizing effects. Traditionally they have been recognized as having a civilizing influence. So in nursing they are seen as supporting the elements of humaneness and humanitarianism. Furthermore, they are a necessary antidote for the depersonalization that accompanies scientific technology and mechanization.
The arts are valued also for their liberalizing effect. They stimulate imaginative creativity. They broaden a person's perspective of the human situation, of man in his world. For instance, depictions of suffering man or of other aspects of the human condition that are found in poetry, drama, or literature are far more descriptive and much closer to reality than those given in typical textbooks.
Current nursing practice reflects the educational preparation of nurses that is weighted heavily with scientific courses and the methodology of positivistic science. Arts and humanities are a necessary complement. Science aims at universals and the discovery of general laws; art reveals the uniqueness of the individual. While science strives for quantification, art is more concerned with quality. Strict conformance to methodology and replicability are prized in scientific studies, whereas freedom and uniqueness of style reign in art. Science, forever updating itself, opens the nurse's eyes to constant change and innovation; the classics promote a sense of the unchanging and lasting in man's world. Science may provide the nurse with knowledge on which to base her decision, but it remains for the arts and humanities to direct the nurse toward examination of values underlying her practice. Thus, humanistic nursing has both scientific and artistic dimensions.
Expression
Humanistic nursing and art are interrelated in another way. Some nurses who are also artists use their respective arts to express their nursing experience. Poetry is a good example.