As a person who has never particularly enjoyed humanities, I am opening more and more exciting things about these disciplines. When preparing this discussion board post, I engaged in self-analysis and realized that, in fact, I am not as distant from the humanities as I always thought. Earlier, I used to work as a nurse aide leader, and a lot of my duties were quite repetitive and even could have seemed boring.
However, I managed to notice the little things, such as patients’ smiles at feeling more comfortable or relieved of pain and my co-workers’ happiness at being helpful and useful. On a larger scale, I realized that our job was not only helping concrete people receive care at our facility. Our duty was also to make this world a better place by giving hope and a chance for a dignified life to many individuals.
It is only now that I have become able to make connections between my unexpressed but vividly experienced emotions and the humanities. Learning about art, history, religion, philosophy, and other fields helps us become ‘mind-readers,’ which is particularly crucial in the professions related to close personal communication. The importance of the humanities in nursing cannot be overestimated.
Not only do the humanities help healthcare professionals to develop their compassionate and caring attitudes, but they also teach us to be careful to detail, patient, and always ready to listen. I am happy that this course has improved not only my understanding of the humanities but also my connection with them. I am sure that in the future, when I pursue my career goals and become a nursing leader, the knowledge of the humanities will assist in interpersonal communication with my team as well as with patients.