Awakening the nurse healer within

Nurses help individuals, families, groups, and communities promote health, reduce health-risking behavior, increase self-care management skills, and facilitate personal growth toward wholeness of mind, body, and spirit. To care for others and to promote health and well-being, nurses must first understand the role of healer and second practice personal care. The article provides a framework for both understanding the role of healer and engendering self-care and healing by introducing methods to care for ourselves, acknowledging the importance of knowledgeable and compassionate caregiving, and creating a vision for the future of health care and nursing.