LAUSR

Baby Charlie Gard, the fragile infant at the heart of a debate about parents’ rights to determine treatment options, died today after life support was withdrawn. Earlier this morning, the Senate failed to advance a bill to partially repeal the Affordable Care Act. For most of us our cell phones and televisions provided a week of heart wrenching coverage of these two events. While these seem unrelated, they focus our attention on a common question: what kind of health care should people expect that is politically and socially mandated? Charlie’s parents were not able on their own to decide about the course and conditions under which his life would unfold – it is clear government intervention was at play in a country where universal health care is the norm. The US Congress grappled in their deliberations in essence how the government and its social policies might influence the kind of health care people would get and ultimately the course and conditions under which the lives of a country’s people would unfold. What was evident from coverage in all forms of media, social and general, are two things. The most obvious one is the extent of extreme polarization in human responses regarding how the government should be involved in our health care. The second, more subtle, is the entrenchment of beliefs expressed as extreme cynicism and contempt for opposite points of view. The purpose of this brief editorial is not to take or argue for any stance, but rather to share thoughts and welcome others to share thoughts on the hope of wholeness as a point of view and to promote the common cause of human betterment as the focus for dialogue. I am not naïve enough to believe that I have the answers to a health care world divided, nor does any individual, organization, or group. What I call for is a willingness to examine the way we live, interact, and respond to one another. Holistic nursing is animated by a set of ideals and holistic nurses form a tribe, a community, a sister-brotherhood of sorts, who for the most part live with a fairly high degree of harmony, even joy, because of our willingness to strive to live by these ideals. I would argue we have competencies formed from examining and immersing ourselves in these ideals that could benefit the societal discourse on health care. May we do our best to leverage our ideals and competencies to promote a world where participation in social dialogue transcends divisiveness, discord, and distress evident in the current social climate? May we listen understandingly and think appreciatively about the variety of viewpoints that exist with the intent of upholding human betterment? The American Holistic Nurses Association describes its vision as “a world in which nursing nurtures wholeness and inspires peace and healing” (American Holistic Nurses Association, 2017). This is a worthy ideal from which to imagine what is possible and be stirred to act accordingly. The Scope and Standards of Practice: Holistic Nursing (2013) espouse holistic nurses “participating in the positive transformation of systems” (p. 8) and advocate for education that “values all the ways of knowing and learning” (p. 18) and research on “healing relationships and healing environments” (p. 20). These public statements are some of the few examples that express the crucial role holistic nursing plays in upholding human betterment worthy of societal aspiration. Using the lens of wholeness to reflect on the discord and divisiveness concerning the ways in which health care is executed and subsidized by the government may bring deepened understanding and forge common ground. Positioning responses based on the ideals of human betterment, peace-making, and positive transformation may encourage actions that overcome the stalemates and mutual contempt that now exists. Perhaps we could even have reason 727381 JHNXXX10.1177/0898010117727381Journal of Holistic Nursing editorial2017