Dedication of hands to nursing: A ceremony of caring

Abstract

<p>Formerly, nursing schools held capping ceremonies for nursing students before their first clinical experience. Since nurses no longer wear caps, capping ceremonies with their rite of passage from regular student to student nurse have vanished. To bring back a ceremonial rite of passage for beginning student nurses, a ceremony of caring emphasizing the import of all that nurses’ hands can convey as they provide nursing care was conceived. Undergirded by Jean Watson’s Theory of Caring, the Hand Dedication Ceremony is an act of caring provided to first semester nursing students before their first clinical experience with patients. During the ceremony, students are charged to allow their hands to be guided not only by their new knowledge and skills but also by their hearts and spirits to transform skilled nursing tasks into skilled holistic nursing care. Students formally dedicate their hands to nursing and human caring as faculty ceremonially wash, dry, and apply oil to the students’ hands.</p

Qualitative analysis of European and Middle East intensive care unit nursing death rituals

“…Similar to the findings of Wilson and Kirshbaum (2011), we found that the death of patients affects nurses, and nurses might need more education on grief theory and a better organized in-house follow-up service after the most demanding situations. Symbols stand out in rituals; they are essential to ritual performance (Ball et al, 2013). They represent meanings that are not necessarily conscious and operate as a 'cognitive reflex' (Wolf, 2013).…”

“…They represent meanings that are not necessarily conscious and operate as a 'cognitive reflex' (Wolf, 2013). The ritual of washing the person is symbolic of 'flushing or rinsing the sickness and cause of death' to a new clean status, a pristine state to continue the journey (Ball et al, 2013).…”

Supporting the Spiritual Care of Patients and Healers

“…However, formal missioning ceremonies which recall the school's core values are occasional and up to the individual schools. These include such practices as a Missioning Ceremony, Blessing of the Hands Ceremony [16,17] or Traditional Blessing Ceremony for Native American students [18] (University of Arizona website). All students should have the opportunity to receive a dedication appropriate to their faith tradition, perhaps in an interdenominational service.…”