The healers journey: a literature review.

While much important research has gone into identifying the efficacy and importance that healing interventions can make to healthcare this paper seeks to synthesise some of the core themes of the processes that healers go through in their journey to becoming a healer. Through the process of a literature review of seminal texts and current literature the paper identifies the key themes of, healer as facilitator, connecting to sources of healing, an appreciation of the healee, an expanded sense of spirituality, an acknowledgement of the wider archetypal significance of the healer, the importance of the wound and the role that these can play in the process of personal transformation and also acceptance. In doing so it hopes to offer that the journey of the healer plays a crucial role in guiding the quality of the healing that healers share in a healing encounter.

Educator as shaman and the sublated space.

This paper seeks to identify and explore some of the tensions that nurse educators face when engaging in the competing internal and external demands that are made on their delivery of curricula. It offers that one of the ways to explore these tensions constructively is to see them dialectically. It seeks to identify three archetypal dialectical themes that can be present in our teaching and offers that the educator's role can be understood to be one of a shaman as they seek to resolve these dialectical tensions skillfully.

Reflections on love's spirals.

This article seeks to explore how the experience of love and its expression might inform and guide reflection and inquiry into love. Despite the importance of love in our personal and professional lives, it remains a topic that has further scope for inquiry within nursing circles. The article takes as its catalyst an encounter that emerged out of a piece of research that was exploring individuals' experiences of becoming healers and the journey they undertook. One participant spoke deeply and profoundly of his experience of love, which generated for me a personal, experiential, and intellectual process of inquiry. The article seeks to try and create a synthesis between rational inquiry and subjective experience. It explores W. B. Yeats's notion of a gyre, a spiral, as an image and metaphor for integrating different conceptions and understandings of love. It seeks to illustrate how a more integrated understanding of love may open up spaces of inquiry that are more flexible, creative, and spontaneous.

Children's student nurses' knowledge of spirituality and its implications for educational practice.

Children's nurse educators have to rely predominantly on adult-based literature to guide their educational practice concerning spirituality in the nursing curriculum. The aim of this study was to get a children's nursing perspective. A questionnaire was designed around the main themes emerging from the adult literature on spirituality. This was distributed to children's nurses on the undergraduate curriculum at a UK university. The results showed that some of the challenges of delivering spirituality are common to both adult and children's nursing. However, there were also significant differences revolving around the impact that children and families had in informing students' understanding of spirituality, and the problems of seeking a unified theory of spirituality in a children's nursing context. It concludes that children's nursing has important lessons to learn from the adult literature; however, it must strive to construct its own insights and use this understanding to inform educational approaches to the topic.

The origins of current nurse education policy and its implications for nurse educators.

The publication of Fitness for Practice [UKCC Commission for Nursing and Midwifery Education, 1999. Fitness for Practice (Chair Sir Leonard Peach). UKCC, London] in the United Kingdom (UK) came at a time when anxiety was being expressed by UK government and the National Health Service (NHS) over the suitability of newly trained nurses to be 'fit for purpose'. There had been growing disquiet that the education reforms of the 1990s, which had seen nurse education move into higher education, had failed to deliver skilled nurses for the modern healthcare system. Fitness for Practice (loc. cit.) became the driving force behind government's attempts to bring about change nurse education policy. In the process of these reforms, nurse educators were marginalised and portrayed a negative light. The implementation time of the report was one to two years. This makes the policy ripe for discussion and analysis to explore the complexity of its recommendations, and its implications for UK nurse educators within a higher education context.

Interprofessional working: opportunities and challenges.

Interprofessional working is a concept that has an impact on nursing and the care delivered. However, this article argues that it continues to remain a poorly understood term in clinical practice. It explores the implications of interprofessional working and argues that the term 'interprofessional' encompasses three separate but connected dynamics. These are: Philosophy--new ways of working. Policy initiatives that seek to create a structure where interprofessional working can be implemented. Patients receiving improved care with delivery based on evidence and efficient use of resources. The article seeks to show how nursing can actively engage with this process to a positive effect, and that the values and focus of holistic care can be integral to modern healthcare delivery.