Transforming Care: A Christian Vision of Nursing Practice by Mary Molewyk Doornbos;Ruth Groenhout;Kendra G. Hotz

dependent. In fact, part of embodiment involves our knowledge that there
will come a time when each of us ceases to be an "I," when the elements out
of which we are composed no longer make up a person. The vulnerability
of embodiment constitutes the standing possibility for lament: an anguished cry against suffering, degradation, and untimely death.

    Health is not only to be well,
but to be able to use well
every power we have to use.
    FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

    There is yet another side to being an embodied person, related to both
vulnerability and agency - namely, openness (Levinas 1987, 146). Embodiment means permanent exposure to incoming disruptions. Because
we are located in space and time and in relations of interdependence with
other people, we are always in a position to be interrupted by other things
and, more importantly, other people. This is not something we have any
choice about. Right from the start of life we find ourselves constantly in relationships where others make decisions that affect us. As we grow and
gain some relative independence we have more control over some of these
mutual interactions, but especially in occupations such as nursing that involve constant attentiveness to others' needs we are never free from the demands of others. And though a bit more time away from others' demands
generally sounds attractive, none of us really wants to be isolated and completely alone; there are few things more damaging to selfhood than extended solitary confinement. A basic part of embodied personhood is this
openness to other selves.
    Openness means that persons are always formed by reciprocal interdependence. Janet competently took information from an objective body -
blood pressure, oxygen levels, pulse, urine output - but while she was doing that she also attended to Ann as a whole person. Janet greeted her
warmly, asked an open-ended question, listened for the answer, complied
with the request, and didn't draw attention to its complications. This sug gests a fundamental openness, an attunement to others. It also requires
that we set aside expectations and prejudgments so that we can be open to
others as the vulnerable, enjoying, embodied beings that they are (Olthuis
2002, 128). Openness thus also points to the responsibility we have to and
for the other person. While we generally begin with an assumption of our
own freedom and agency, part of being an interdependent person is to feel
the need to relativize one's own freedom because of responsibility to another person. To be a person is to be called to put one's agency to work for
the good of the other person, to care for that other person. We experience
our own openness when we recognize that we have a responsibility, here
and now, in this relationship, to care.

    Being a person involves having a responsibility to care for others, and
this responsibility is a part of the interdependence that marks the human
condition. Most nurses, of course, have no trouble remembering that they
have a responsibility to care for others, particularly clients, since that is
built into their professional identity. But this relationship of responsibility
is a reciprocal one, not a one-way street. At the same time that the nurse
cares for his or her client, we frequently find that the client responds by
trying to take care of the nurse. The client denies her pain because she
doesn't want her care-giver to feel distress. Or the client makes sure he asks
about the nurse's life and family. These gestures can be awkward, but they
indicate that the client feels a need to be in a reciprocal relationship. Sometimes it is tempting for the nurse to brush these gestures aside as impertinent, and they can be inappropriate and intrusive. But at the same time,
recognition that the client is not an entirely passive object of the nurse's
care is an important part of the relationship between these two embodied
persons. It is a relationship of