COVID-19 Pandemics: an opportunity to give Nursing global visibility

Abstract

When we think of the internationalization of Nursing, we immediately imagine the visibility provided by research, through scientific publications, presentations in congresses, professor and student movements when they offer the perfect opportunity to show what we do best. That was what I was thinking some days ago when I accepted the honor of writing this editorial. However, today the world has changed in unimaginable ways, and the certitude, completeness, the supposed perfection and, above all, the misconception of dominance and control that most human beings desire are interrupted by a world pandemics caused by a coronavirus: the COVID-19 (1) , which has openly made us face the idea that we are working on our self-elimination. This situation has also presented the nurses all over the world the great opportunity of higher visibility, by demonstrating our skills in knowledge, research, creativity and, as stated by the biologist Humberto Maturana, demonstrating the skills we have for our own autopoiesis, referring to that possibility of self-organization, of self-construction and adaptation to what our common ecological niche offers today: The Earth (2). This leads us to understand and interpret a new care cosmovision by acknowledging the complexity of the globalized problems of life where uncertainty and chaos (3) emerge, so that we can meditate and create new questions that will lead us to new forms of education, research and development of innovative practices. We should begin by the education in Nursing, affected by the pandemics, reaching a decisive point that Fritjof Capra (4) calls "the crucial point", when it allows this accelerated spinning to the concept of presence and flexibility, field of online education, implementing education strategies that we had never imagined with the end of continually improve the development of our curricula with a clear goal: to achieve the learning skills that our Nursing students require to face the challenges presented today by a global virus, which does not only affect health through lesions in the upper and lower respiratory tract, but also threatens to affect social-economical and family dynamics, not to mention, very likely, all the population's mental health. Maybe that would be the perfect excuse to consolidate Nursing education skills that contribute to developing beings integrated into the Universe, who would share different theories or concepts, respecting one another and applying for themselves what is good for the common welfare. That can be achieved by developing the awareness of our own and the collective meaning to know where we live, where we are and where we intend

Nursing and "being with" in a world with COVID-19: an existentialist look

“…According to Heidegger (8) , men is "cared for" because he "cares", ontologically, for himself and others, letting them appear or coexist. Therefore, the "care" is an essential part of existence, from the phenomenological-existential understanding of men, or the "being-there".…”

“…In this context, caring for the other is not only to provide them with technical actions, but, fundamentally, with actions that are sensitive, such as "being with" in a present and authentic way, at every moment where there is an encounter for the provision of care (8)(9)(10)(11)(12) , understanding the authentic being as the one who shows himself as he is, recognizing his fears and anguishes, but seeking possibilities of continuing to exist.…”

“…From an existential perspective, human beings have the ability to see, mean, and appropriate the things of the world from their own perspective. The starting point of existentialism is the analysis of a concrete and experienced life, and each man is its object of study, being understood as an experience in which he does not stop being for himself (8) . This is the condition that made it possible for men to reinvent themselves in different contexts, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Personal relations became virtual, while hugs and "being-with" were never so valued, since each man is a "being-in-the-world". Its existence is constituted considering the possibilities of existing, making choices, but especially of relating to others, which makes men unique beings (8) .…”

“…Therefore, nursing care must be authentic, not a simple follow up of the patient, and must, especially, encourage the building of affinity, since the nurse and the patient share experiences. In this process, both understand and learn how to establish connections that lead to the unveiling of different worlds, deepening, as a result, a relation of care (8) .…”