Dear Colleagues,
Heart and Science.
This will be the name of our new Nursing and Patient Care Services newsletter, which will be launched this spring. BWH Nurse as we know it today will be transformed to create a more inclusive communication tool that speaks to staff within and across the Department of Nursing and Patient Care Services (PCS). Narratives from across disciplines will provide a window into each of our unique perspectives and contributions to patient care. Heart and Science reflects the sources of the truths that connect us as nurses to each other and to our inter-professional colleagues.
Heart and Science.
The title reflects the sources of truths that bring us together to care for patients and families. Our inter-professional care is always informed by the state of the science or evidence that currently exists within our disciplines or that we are in the process of co-creating. We acknowledge the patient as a central source of evidence-a source that informs our care through understanding which holds meaning for this unique human being or family.
Heart reflects the caring intention with which we begin each day and encounter as called forth in Relationship-Based Care, our nursing Care Delivery System. We are called to cultivate a caring consciousness in the key relationships included in Relationship-Based Care (relationships with our patients, families, ourselves, our colleagues and the diverse communities we serve). We strive to ensure that all who enter our path in the course of a day-patients, families, staff and colleagues-feel welcomed and cared for. Our goal is to create a conspiracy of caring!
Care of self is essential and requires an ability to quiet our minds in order to be fully present to our own and others' evolving stories. We approach each person free of assumptions and with curiosity. Allowing others to tell their own story, versus making assumptions about their story, requires time for reflection. As Jean Watson, PhD, RN, states, "Knowledge without reflection...is not wisdom." In future issues, the clinical narrative will continue to provide us with a window into that intimate, reflective space and advance our collective wisdom.
BWH Nurse has been published for 14 years. It has been an effective way to communicate to professional nurses and supports building our professional identity and community. It is fitting that during our Blueprint Celebration we move to the next phase of our development, broadening our sphere of influence to support the identity of inter-professional teams, which include patients and families. In Heart and Science, we will continue to celebrate nurses with PCS staff for their contributions to the outstanding care we deliver each and every day while preserving the human experience.
I want to acknowledge and thank each of you and all of our BWH colleagues for your effort and responsiveness when a leaking pipe during the frigid weather caused flooding in January. As always, you kept the patient and family at the center of all that we do. I am humbled to serve you.
With warm regards,
Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN
Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services