Disaster Care Through a Humanbecoming Lens

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina provided a unique learning experience for a group of senior nursing students from Troy University in Alabama. Using Parse's teaching-learning processes as a framework, students related their experiences and discovered new meaning for themselves and others as they completed their final semester of the nursing program. This experience exemplified to students that nursing is more than tasks, caring is attentively being with persons, and that holding a hand can demonstrate good nursing care more than a successful intravenous puncture.

Humanbecoming

“…Several specific policy uses of the theory of humanbecoming have been described in the literature and include: evolution of educational processes in response to societal events (Hayden, 2010), regulatory decisioning (Benedict et al, 2000;Vander Woude & Hutcherson, 1999), and revision to organizational policies based on nursing knowledge (McLeod & Spée, 2003). Several specific policy uses of the theory of humanbecoming have been described in the literature and include: evolution of educational processes in response to societal events (Hayden, 2010), regulatory decisioning (Benedict et al, 2000;Vander Woude & Hutcherson, 1999), and revision to organizational policies based on nursing knowledge (McLeod & Spée, 2003).…”

“…Twelve Troy University senior nursing students in their community health rotation had a unique opportunity to complete course clinical requirements caring for evacuees of Katrina at a medical center in nearby Mississippi (Hayden, 2010). Faculty members at Troy University in Alabama had already begun to expand their coverage of disaster preparedness when Hurricane Katrina hit.…”

“…Humanbecoming can be used as a guide to expanding nurses' involvement in health policy. Several specific policy uses of the theory of humanbecoming have been described in the literature and include: evolution of educational processes in response to societal events (Hayden, 2010), regulatory decisioning (Benedict et al, 2000;Vander Woude & Hutcherson, 1999), and revision to organizational policies based on nursing knowledge (McLeod & Spée, 2003).…”

“…Faculty members at Troy University in Alabama had already begun to expand their coverage of disaster preparedness when Hurricane Katrina hit. Twelve Troy University senior nursing students in their community health rotation had a unique opportunity to complete course clinical requirements caring for evacuees of Katrina at a medical center in nearby Mississippi (Hayden, 2010). The humanbecoming teaching-learning model was used for this experience as the students provided both direct nursing care and ancillary housekeeping-type duties with the guidance of the Parse nurse, Susan Hayden.…”