bodily care is to comfort the patient. Through this
comforting, the person of the patient, as well as his
or her body, responds to the physical care. Hall cau-
tioned against viewing intimate bodily care as a
task that can be performed by anyone:
To make the distinction between a trade and a profes-
sion, let me say that the laying on of hands to wash
around a body is an activity, it is a trade; but if you
look behind the activity for the rationale and intent,
look beyond it for the opportunities that the activity
opens up for something more enriching in growth,
learning and healing production on the part of the
patient—you have got a profession. Our intent when
we lay hands on the patient in bodily care is to com-
fort. While the patient is being comforted, he feels
close to the comforting one. At this time his person
talks out and acts out those things that concern
him—good, bad and indifferent. If nothing more is
done with these, what the patient gets is ventilation or
catharsis, if you will. This may bring relief of anxiety
and tension but not necessarily learning. If the indi-
vidual who is in the comforting role has in her prepa-
ration all of the sciences whose principles she can
offer a teaching-learning experience around his con-
cerns, the ones that are most effective in teaching and
learning, then the comforter proceeds to something
beyond—to what I call “nurturer”—someone who
fosters learning, someone who fosters growing up
emotionally, someone who even fosters healing. (Hall,
1969, p. 86)CURE
The second aspect of the nursing process is shared
with medicine and is labeled the “cure.” During this
aspect, the nurturing process may be modified as
this aspect overlaps it. Hall (1958) comments on
the two ways that this medical aspect of nursing
may be viewed. It may be viewed as the nurse
assisting the doctor by assuming medical tasks or
The other view of this aspect of nursing is
to see the nurse helping the patient
through his or her medical, surgical, and
rehabilitative care in the role of comforter
and nurturer.functions. The other view of this aspect of nursing
is to see the nurse helping the patient through his
or her medical, surgical, and rehabilitative care in
the role of comforter and nurturer. Hall felt that the
nursing profession was assuming more and more of
the medical aspects of care while at the same time
giving away the nurturing process of nursing to less
well-prepared persons. Hall stated:Interestingly enough, physicians do not have practical
doctors. They don’t need them...they have nurses.
Interesting, too, is the fact that most nurses show by
their delegation of nurturing to others, that they pre-
fer being second class doctors to being first class
nurses. This is the prerogative of any nurse. If she feels
better in this role, why not? One good reason why not
for more and more nurses is that with this increasing
trend, patients receive from professional nurses sec-
ond class doctoring; and from practical nurses, sec-
ond class nursing. Some nurses would like the public
to get first class nursing. Seeing the patient through
[his or her] medical care without giving up the nur-
turing will keep the unique opportunity that personal
closeness provides to further [the] patient’s growth
and rehabilitation. (1958, p. 3)CORE
The third area that nursing shares with all of the
helping professions is that of using relationships
for therapeutic effect—the core. This area empha-
sizes the social, emotional, spiritual, and intellec-
tual needs of the patient in relation to family,
institution, community, and the world (Hall, 1955,
1958, 1965). Knowledges that are foundational
to the core were based on the social sciences and
on therapeutic use of self. Through the closeness
offered by the provision of intimate bodily care,
the patient will feel comfortable enough to ex-
plore with the nurse “who he is, where he is, where
he wants to go and will take or refuse help in get-
ting there—the patient will make amazingly more
rapid progress toward recovery and rehabilitation”
(Hall, 1958, p. 3). Hall believed that through this
process, the patient would emerge as a whole
person.
Knowledge and skills the nurse needs in order to
use self therapeutically include knowing self and
learning interpersonal skills. The goals of the inter-
personal process are to help patients to understand
themselves as they participate in problem focusing
and problem solving. Hall discussed the impor-
tance of nursing with the patient as opposed to
nursing at, to, or for the patient. Hall reflected on
the value of the therapeutic use of self by the pro-
fessional nurse when she stated:118 SECTION II Evolution of Nursing Theory: Essential Influences