"Health is not something that one gives to someone else as much as it is a value shared between the client and the healer." This statement is one of several principles that form the new thinking on the spiritual relationship that exists between nurses and their patients.

The healer-patient relationship is receiving more attention, thanks partly to patients complaining about the treatment they typically receive. Nursing theory is in the vanguard of change, nurturing a new conception of the healing relationship.

For a spiritual approach to healing, according to an article published by in the journal, Nursing Outlook, there needs to be an equality between the healer and patient. The authors of this article, professors of nursing at the University of Texas, ask that nurses devote attention to their own health and share their efforts with the patients.

Burnout does not come, they claim, from caring too much, but from not caring enough. Rather than viewing the patient’s body as a closed system, these theorists see the patient’s self, the nurses’ selves, and the entire hospital environment as an complex pattern of interacting energies. Nurturing a healing environment is the responsibility of all concerned. As the nurses contribute to health in themselves and in the patients, so do the patients, by their own struggles toward wellness, contribute to health in the nurses and hospital staff.

For further information, contact Beverly A. Hall, R.N., Ph.D., Denton Cooley Professor of Nursing, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712. (Digest by Henry Reed)