Holistic Health in School
School Nurses Can Lead the Way
This is a new page in progress
As nurse professionals today, we school nurses often find ourselves caught up in the allopathic model of care. This model is focused upon symptoms of illness or dysfunction, with technological interventions such as drugs or surgery considered the best treatment. While we are indeed fortunate to live today when such interventions are available in caring for the body, many nurses and especially school nurses, struggle with how to make our practices more holistic, for we know that health is achieved not only through care of the body, but also through care of the mind and spirit. We may find ourselves handing out a pill for a headache or dismissing a student with a normal tempertaure back to class as matter of efficiency because our offfices are so busy. Yet we often do so feeling caught up in the sick/not sick model when deep down we know that there is more to promoting, acheiving and maintaining health and wellness than this. We want to truly nurse or patients.
More and more, nursing is embracing a broader view than the allopathic medical model of our times. While some science-minded nurses consider anything outside of this model New Agey and suspect, in truth, nursing was always about body, mind and spirit. Florence Nightingale embraced this holistic view, but it was lost to us as nursing became medicalized. Today, more and more nurses are embracing it once again.
Alternative modalities, meant to be used "instead" can be found outside of nursing, and in my opinion, are not nursing, even if they have their place. However, complementay modalities, meant to be used in "conjunction", do have a place in nursing. The blending of the two is holistic nursing.
As I continue to try to make my school nursing practice more holistic, I try to keep in mind the difference between alternative and complementary. As I seek to make my office a place that responds to the needs of body, mind and spirit, I still want to ensure that I am using evidence-based practice. This web page is my starting place for sharing my journey with you. My goal will be to include the research-based evidence and to show how it ties to common complaints that we see in our offices. My goal will be to show how complementary care can and should be a legitimate part of our practices. Check back often as I expand this page.
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