Being in shared sensitive presence when life falls apart

Among other disciplines, nurses are present in life- situations affected by sorrow, powerlessness, suffering and death. The phenomena of ‘being there’ with- or beside another human being when life falls apart has been expressed in different ways. Carl Rogers describe empathy as an ability to accept and understand the perspectives and feelings of others (Rogers, 1962; 1975). Joyce Travelbee prefer the concept of sympathy and include dimensions of compassion (Travelbee, 1997) while others (e.g., Corso, 2012; Gonzales & Melton, 2017; Larisey, 2012; Laskowski & Pellicore, 2002) use Jungs archetype ‘the wounded healer’ to describe how nurses can use their own fragility and brokenness to ease suffering. In a phenomenological action research project titled: ‘Moments of beauty in nursing – a source of professional development and innovation’, I, from an ontological perspective, inquire into the being of nurses when they are present and together with patients in situations embedded with mortality and despair. Through phenomenological descriptions and reflections a concept of ‘shared sensitive presence’ rise. ‘Shared sensitive presence’ refers to situations, where nurse and patient both are under the impression from communal life phenomena, while the phenomenon unfold. For example, nurse and patient in togetherness sense and share mortality as a communal human ground and existential reality. In this presentation, I will describe, explore and discuss ‘shared sensitive presence’ as a phenomenon that seems to exist in nurse’s practice. The phenomena will be clarified using Baumgartens concept: ‘sensitive recognition’ and through the lenses of Heidegger.