Psyche = “Mind, Body, Soul”

My journey to becoming an integrative Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner started out during one of my first patient encounters (when I started out as a Nursing Assistant on the cardiac unit many years ago). It was an exciting time for me as I had just entered the world of “medicine”.

I wanted to learn everything.

I remember one of my first assignments was to sit quietly with a man who had begun to develop difficulty with his breathing. He was naturally scared and asked me to stay with him. His breathing got better after about an hour, and he warmly grasped my hand in his and thanked me. I remember being surprised by his gratitude—because I hadn’t “done” anything. I had not intervened nor had anyone else. I had simply stayed with him.

While at that time, I wanted to learn (what felt like) exciting medical procedures, the mysteries of medical monitoring, and the complexities of diagnosis and treatment, that experience of being with vs. doing to turned out to one of my most valuable lessons. Sitting quietly with a suffering person, I learned that the very presence of an attentive human being can make the biggest difference in someone’s life and health.

This scene has played out over and over again in my healthcare career—as a paramedic, as a cardiac technician, and as a nurse. I found that the “being with” people was what seemed to make the biggest difference in their health and wellbeing and this lesson eventually led me to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.