Pioneer holistic nurse, Barbara Dossey, on Your Healing

Barbara Dossey Interview 5/25/06

Barbara Dossey, PhD, RN is a pioneer in the holistic nursing movement, has authored many respected and award winning books, is a Florence Nightingale scholar, successfully integrates non-traditional and science views of healing, and is dedicated to the evolution of global health for all.  Her most recent book is Florence Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Healer.

Do you ask yourself every day, “What part of me needs healing today?” 

In this interview, Dr. Barbara Dossey urges us to invest in Self-Care daily and suggests specific things we can do to prevent, maintain, and restore our health and well-being.  She also outlines a vast program for creating a Healthy World for All by 2020 and invites you to join her Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH) team.

1. Medicine is changing as the PBS New Medicine special suggested.  What do you think is behind these changes?

Dossey: The changes in medicine today are consumer driven.  Consumers are seeking alternative and/or complementary care as well as more informed conversations with their health care professionals for several reasons.

1. The health care system in the USA is in need of reform.  People are frustrated with their options.  And, when our health care system offers no options for a condition, people naturally start looking elsewhere.
2. The Internet has made it possible for people to be better informed about health issues and their potential treatment.  Health care professionals are beginning to be seen as knowledgeable and expert partners in the search for health, not wise wizards who are destined to cure us.
3. We are a diverse nation.  As other cultures impact our health care system, different ideas of what healing is, how health is maintained, and methodologies of cure are important considerations.

2. You talk about healing environments. Can you name a few specific things that people can do externally and internally to create a healing environment for themselves?

Dossey: Life now often feels like it is ‘over the top.’  We are all so busy.  It is astounding how much we expect of ourselves and are exposed to every day.  We are interested in more, we are exposed to vast amount of information daily, we are connected around the globe through the Internet, and time has speeded up beyond our biological clock.

This makes Self Care an essential piece of health and well-being today.  For example, I try not to do email after 6 pm, although it is tempting.  When I am winding down my day, my international colleagues are starting their day.  I can’t let the Internet’s capacity to transcend time zones short change my need for rest and relaxation, otherwise I am not living the healthy life I advocate for all.

Another aspect of today’s Self-Care is realizing that there is no such thing as ‘getting your work done by the end of the day.’  It is best to take chunks of work, reasonable chunks, and enjoy finishing them.  Create new Self-Talk about accomplishments.  Remember the 50% rule—reduce your ‘to-do’ list by half.

Commit yourself to deep listening.  Imagine a high mountain lake when the wind and water are completely still.  The reflection of the snow-capped mountains in the water is so clear that it is almost difficult to distinguish between the reality and the reflection.

This is the still state of your inner being.  You can go below the superficial level of life, go deep down below the surface, and connect with your spirit, your well-being.  Bear witness to your needs for health. 

Today health care challenges tend to be in the area of ‘doing’ rather than ‘being.’  Therefore, take time to be.  People often don’t feel like they have a voice in their health care, well-being, or even their lives.  When you are in a being space, you can listen to others without the need to fix or do anything.  If you can do this for yourself—really listen to your inner state without thinking the answer lies in your doing or fixing, you can also bring this ‘bear witness listening’ to others.

3. LSF is interested in the role of intuition in health care and wellness.  In the past 30 years, nursing has conducted more research on the use of intuition in health care settings than any other profession.  Could you please comment on what you think the role of intuition is in health care settings?

Dossey: Let me go back to the value of Self-Care, whether you are a health care professional or not.  Every person can recognize the importance of his or her inner intuitive voice, a place where we are often most closed down. 

Take responsibility for your healing.  Stop. Take time to be quiet.  Learn to listen to your inner voice.  Ask yourself:

• What part of me is in need of healing today? 
• What can I do to respond to that part in this moment?

It is important to respond to the answers to these questions.  If you feel challenged, you can ask yourself, “How have I gotten through crisis before?” and tell yourself, “I am doing the best that I can.”

Watch for your internal dialogues and stories of suffering, discomfort, and pain about your life.  Check your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.  Commit yourself to reducing and/or eliminating your internal suffering stories.  Listen to what your intuition suggests in terms of healing.

Some things I share with people are:

1. Reduce your television watching which often is 24/7 stories of suffering.
2. Seek ways to take in more positive information.
3. Take a 15 minute break from work several times a day.
4. Go for a short walk even if it is around your apartment or house.
5. Drink more water.
6. Go to the grocery story and buy fresh, healthy food.
7. Take a bath and soak for 20 minutes or more.
8. Exchange services with health care professionals such as massage therapists, reiki healers, nutritional specialists, etc.
9. Listen to music or relaxation tapes or CDs.
10. Let yourself cry and laugh.

Throughout life, know your healing team which includes health care providers, family members, friends, and other people with who you can share laughter, tears, and love.

4. A great advocate for health, you point out the immense amount of stress and burnout in the health care professionals and workers in general.  One cause of this you call ‘soul pain.’  What is soul pain and what causes it?

Dossey: The burn out of nurses and other workers is caused by lots of factors.  Moral distress, however, is serious and leads to soul pain.  In today’s health care settings, nurses are essentially dealing with suffering, but they know that they need more time to be with people and they may have different opinions of what would be helpful.  Too often, they believe their integrity and/or the patients’ safety are compromised by the organizational infrastructure in which they find themselves.  Their schedules are so full that they have no time to just bear witness or evolve their true healing nature, which is why they went into nursing in the first place.  

These things lead to soul pain and cry out for different infrastructures in our hospitals and clinics.  In addition nurses and all health care professionals need concrete community support.  Health care does not exist in isolation, but is an outgrowth of community need.  Communities need to get involved in caring for their health care professionals.  

5. LSF is considering the development of a renewal center for people, including health care professionals.  What advice would you give us in the creation of such a facility?

Dossey:Restoration is a very important part of the process.  The kinds of Self-Care that I outlined already are rarely supported inside today’s work environments, hospitals and clinics included.  Like all people, health care professionals need to take time for themselves.  No one else can do that for us.

Providing a place where people can stop, go internal, receive healing care if desired, or just do nothing but rest and relax is ideal.  Until we find the internal and external quiet to hear the voice of our intuitive wisdom, we can’t restore ourselves, learn to chunk our accomplishments, put our day on pause, create positive inner stories, soak in the bath of the inner, silent universe, or re-discover a balanced, connected life.

Such a center could model an enlarged community partnership.  As I state often, health is not just a nice idea, but a critical goal.  Health is common to all people. Health is a bridge across boundaries and a highway to world peace.

When communities are concerned with the health and well-being of their members and the people that serve them, they are taking a step toward actualizing these critical goals not only for themselves, but for the global community. .

6. If Florence Nightingale, a heroine of yours who made enormous contributions to national and international health care, were alive today, what would she be doing to promote greater integration of CAM and spirituality into today’s health care system?

Dossey: Nightingale was a futurist who impacted the health care system in many ways--health care education, hospital environments, use of statistics in decision-making and analysis, understanding of nutrition, national and international health policies, viewing nursing as a spiritual practice, and the use of the media to influence health decisions.

Today Nightingale would probably have her own satellite uplink where health care and other relevant information would be continually updated.  She’d maintain a growing database of applied statistics reflecting the best health care practices throughout the world.  There would be a database of various types of healing modalities used in treatment of conditions throughout the world. 

Nightingale would not make distinctions between allopathic and CAM care.  She would place an emphasis on prevention.  She would be interested in what works including the why and when.  She’d encourage others to keep accurate records and make them available instantly via satellite connections, so health care professionals could be make informed decisions.

Nightingale would create immense global partnerships on the behalf of healing.  She’d recognize the role that spirituality played and include miracles and spontaneous remissions and other things that are considered anomalies in her research.

Nightingale would be networking with as many people as possible to develop health care education throughout the world.  She would focus on the women in the villages, towns, and cities because women tend to be the family health care givers and make family healthcare decisions.  Through their education, she would strive to improve the health care for present and future generations.

Working through the United Nations and its 192 member states to influence national and global health care policies, Nightingale would never take sides in a conflict, but serve the health needs of all involved including civilian, government, and military personnel.

The satellite uplink would pay attention to the UN’s Millennium Goals and develop specific strategies for matching Westernized countries with 3rd world countries to improve health care across the planet.  Some of the nurses in the 3rd world have to work in contaminated situations, with no positive identification of disease including, but not limited to, HIV.  They often don’t have equipment, no protocols, and no way to assess safety.  This matching work would emphasize the train-the-trainer concepts and draw on the media to pool socially responsible companies, people, and cities to aid those in great need.

Nightingale’s satellite uplink would be designed for health care professionals, health care administrators and policy makers, and the public they serve.  Chat rooms, streaming web education and exploration, and multimedia research would go into answer the question, “How can we, as a global family, make health a priority for all?”  

And, finally, Nightingale would network to make cheap computers available in every part of the world, so all people could have access to information crucial to their health care decisions.

7. As you point out Nighingale’s impact ranges from the macro global to the micro of local healing environments.  Focusing on healing environments which you define as external and internal factors, what health care facility or facilities have you visited that exemplify improved healing environments that Nightingale and you would advocate?

Dossey:  First, the future health care system will be driven by the needs of patients and families rather than the financial structures of insurance companies, hospitals, and other societal factors which are not directly related to health issues.  It will integrate caring, healing, CAM, and the best of Western medicine.  Every patient will have access to a health care coach and our emphasis will be as much on prevention and well-being as it is today on diagnosis, treatment and cure. 

The Minneapolis area has outstanding examples of facilities which are moving in this direction.  Two that standout are Woodwinds and Abbott Northwestern with its Institute of Health and Healing.  Another good example is St. Charles Medical in Bend, OR which promotes healing in a spirit of love and compassion.

In 5 -10 years, I believe that we will have many more small free standing hospitals or clinics which offer more efficient and effective treatment.  Another possibility is that the wings of hospitals will be converted to facilities that teach more on prevention and are dedicated to mind-based stress and pain reduction.   

In 1994, the task force established by the Fetzer Institute and the Pew Health Professions Commission at the University of California, San Francisco Center for Health Professions published a seminal work which continues to influence health care in this country.  This paper, entitled Relationship-Centered Care, focuses on seeing health care profound relationships—the patient/practioner, the community/practioner, and the practioner/practioner relationships.

8. The organization NIGH (Nightingale Initiative for Global Healing) supports a Health For All by 2020 campaign.  What are some things that people, whether or not they are health care professionals, can do to help support?

Dossey: The Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH) campaign is asking people to support the vision of a healthy world by 2020.  In 2008 NIGH will present two resolutions to the United Nations General Assembly.  The Assembly will be asked to vote on:  (1) 2010 will be the International Year of the Nurse; and that (2) 2010 – 2020 will be the Decade for a Healthy World. 

We are seeking to present the United Nations with the signatures of hundreds of thousands of nurses and world citizens who support the goal of a healthy world. The NIGH Declaration can be signed www.NIGHDeclaration.org, and reads:

“We, the nurses and concerned citizens of the global community hereby dedicate ourselves to the accomplishment of a healthy world by the year 2020.

We declare our willingness to unite in a program of action, sharing information and solutions to resolve problems and improve conditions—locally, nationally, and globally—in order to achieve health for all humanity.

We further resolve to adopt personal practices and to implement public policies in our communities and nations, making this goal for the year 2020 achievable and inevitable, beginning to day in our own lives, in the life of our nations and in the world at large.”