Oculis Spiritualibus - Nursing in the Mirror of the Spirit. Nursing Spirituality Above the Gap between Profession and Practise

Autor u članku propituje važnost i nužnost duhovne dimenzije sestrinstva koja se u novije vrijeme sve češće i sve glasnije nameće kao problem, ali i kao nasušna potreba. U uvodnom dijelu članka autor pojašnjava uvjete i mogućnosti izricanja onoga neizrecivog u sestrinstvu što je zbog suvremene uznapredovale profesionalizacije i modernizacije sestrinstva ili svjesno potisnuto ili svjesno zanijekano ili oboje zajedno. Duhovnu dimenziju sestrinstva autor smješta i ujedno otkriva u najdubljoj nutrini i intimi sestrinske prakse koja se ne da izreći tehničkim jezikom koji slijedi logiku vladanja, učinkovitosti i produktivnosti. Duhovna dimenzija sestrinstva, kao najdublja i utoliko najrealnija dimenzija sestrinstva posjeduje drukčiju logiku od one tehničke. Ta činjenica govori da se duhovna dimenzija bitno razlikuje od svih ostalih profesionalnih dimenzija sestrinstva, iako ih, kao konstitutivna dimenzija, sve prožima i prati. U prebiranju po vrijednosnim dimenzijama sestrinske prakse, autor u članku postupno produbljuje smisao i značenje duhovne dimenzije sestrinstva, a kao logičke pretpostavke za kasnije konkretno i sadržajno osmišljavanje duhovnosti u sestrinstvu. U tom smislu autor pojašnjava biblijski smisao i značenje srca kao metafore kojom se označuje čovjekova nutrina i intima, ali i izriče smisao cjelovitosti ljudske osobe. Zatim pojašnjava smisao i značenje graničnih ljudskih iskustava, kao što su bolest, patnja, umiranje i smrt, s kojima se medicinske sestre svakodnevno susreću, u kojima autor prepoznaje jasne znakove proloma transcendencije u imanenciju, odnosno duhovnog u tjelesno, polazeći pritom i od cjelovite vizije ljudske osobe kao realnog duhovno-tjelesnog ili transcendentno-imanentnog jedinstva. Na temelju svijesti o transcendenciji, koja je neupitna sastavnica ljudskog iskustva, autor u nastavku pokazuje kako se upravo iz te svijesti javlja potreba za odgovorom na pitanje o smislu ljudske egzistencije, posebno u tragičnim situacijama ljudskog života. Ta potreba ujedno otvara pitanje o duhovnosti, a što je slučaj i sa sestrinstvom koje autor jednoznačno shvaća kao njegu bolesnika. Sestrinska praksa je, dakle, njega bolesnika, a ta njega je po svom vrijednosnom naboju takva da zahtijeva duhovno ozračje, duhovno držanje i duhovni pristup u odnosu medicinske sestre i bolesnika. Prema kraju članka autor pokazuje kako je smisao duhovnosti u sestrinstvu jasno izražen u ideji sestrinstva kao poziva na što se onda nadovezuje preciziranje sadržaja duhovnosti u sestrinstvu, posebno kršćanske duhovnosti u sestrinstvu koja izvire iz kršćanskog iskustva stvarnosti i na njemu se temelji polazeći od Isusa Krista patnika. Kršćansko iskustvo uvijek se pokazuje i ostvaruje kroz intimnu povezanost transcendencije i imanencije, odnosno kroz djelovanje nadnaravne milosti na čovjekovo naravno stanje. Na samom kraju autor pobliže analizira dostojanstvo sestrinstva kao svete službe koja nedvosmisleno upućuje na izvanrednu potrebu duhovnosti u sestrinstvu, ali i otkriva istinsku duhovnu snagu i posebnost sestrinske prakse kao njege bolesnika, tj. bližnjega u potrebi na čijem se licu prepoznaje lice Krista patnika.In this article the author questions the urgency of the spiritual dimension of nursing which in recent times is being presented more as a problem but also a matter requiring urgent attention. In the introduction the author explains the conditions and opportunities of expressing the unspeakable in nursing which due to modern advancement of professionalization and modernisation of nursing has consciously been suppressed or consciously denied or both. The author places and simultaneously discloses the spiritual dimension of nursing in the deepest interior and intimate nursing practise which cannot be expressed in technical language that follows the logic of behaviour efficiency and productivity. The spiritual dimension of nursing as the deepest and as such, most realistic dimension of nursing possesses a different logic compared to the technical. That fact tells us that the spiritual dimension is vitally different from all other professional dimensions of nursing even though, as a constitutive dimension, it permeates and follows them all. While ordering the dimensions of practise in the nursing by value the author gradually deepens the meaning and significance of the spiritual dimension of nursing and as a logical presumption for later concrete and contextual design of spirituality in the nursing. In that regard the author explains the Biblical meaning and significance of the heart as a metaphor with which we identify man\u27s interior and intimacy but also expresses the meaning of the completeness of the human being. The author then explains the meaning and significance of borderline human experience such as illness, suffering, dying and death which nurses are faced with every day and in which the author recognises clear signs of the breakthrough from transcendence to immanence, from the spiritual to the bodily starting from a complete vision of the human being as a real spiritual-bodily or transcendental-immanent unity. Based on awareness of transcendence which is an unquestionable constituent of human experience, the author continues to show that it is from this awareness that the need for an answer to the question about the meaning of human existence emerges, particularly in tragic situations in human life. That need also raises the question of spirituality, also being the case with nursing which the author equally comprehends to be care for the patient. The practise of nursing therefore is care for the patient and that care, by virtue of its valuable charge, is such that it requires a spiritual environment, spiritual behaviour and spiritual approach with regard to nurses and the patient. Toward the end of the article the author shows that the meaning of spirituality in nursing is clearly expressed in the idea of nursing as a calling which then supplements the precise content of spirituality in the nursing, particularly Christian spirituality in the nursing which springs from and on the Christian experience of reality starting from Jesus Christ the sufferer. Christian experience is always shown and realised through an intimate bond between transcendence and immanence, that is, through the actions of super-natural mercy for man\u27s natural state. In conclusion the author gives a closer analysis of the dignity of nursing as a divine service which unambiguously points to the extraordinary need for spirituality in the nursing but also discloses the true spiritual strength and speciality of the practise of nursing as caring for the patient, i.e. one\u27s neighbour in need in whose face we recognise the face of Christ the sufferer