Staying

Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Director, in a “Laborcare Journal” article, talk about “staying”

By Gianluca Favero and Mariella Orsi

This issue of Laborcare Journal is dedicated to “being” in the work of Care, an act that is not taken for granted and on which it is necessary to reflect in a daily work routine that, instead, imposes increasingly “corporate” “times.”

In a section of the Treccani Vocabulary, about the etymon “stare” we read, “… To stop by ceasing movement … the etymon of s. comes from a very ancient Indo-European root with the value of ‘to halt,’ which is also found in verbs such as assist, consist, exist, resist, remain, pause …”

Are these not, perhaps, the elements that accumulate the lives of the cared for and the caregivers?

Andrea Lopes Pegna, a physician, takes his cue from an article published in the newspaper “Il Foglio” (“ Empathy? No thanks.”) to state that: “when it is asserted, however, that empathy, understood as empathizing with the other person’s suffering, prevents rational decision-making, I disagree … because I think that emotional empathy cannot be so clearly distinguished from cognitive empathy and should not be limited to feeling the suffering of the other, but should instead be an indispensable tool for entering into the needs of the person suffering.”

Being alongside worries precisely because of the possible involvements that, in an increasingly positivist reality governed by scientific evidence, seem to be unable to coexist; indeed, they may, even, be an obstacle to “doing.”

STARE, in the experience of the Italian Leniterapia Foundation, has become the acronym for five words that also define the ethics of the volunteer who accompanies people at the end of their lives.

These words are:

• SILENCE – because much is communicated even without using verbal language;
• TIME – which is so precious when, this, has become short;
• LISTENING – which is attention to the other, to communicate – to welcome every word the person can and wants to express;
• RESPECT – for the dignity of the people one cares for;
• EMPATHY – which implies the effort to try to understand the suffering of the other, trying to alleviate the aspects on which it is possible to act.

Through the testimonies that health care workers (physicians, nurses, OSS, psychologists, physical therapists) and volunteers offer us – in the many complex aspects of caring for people who have reached the advanced stages of illness and who, precisely because the end of their existence is near – we understand the need for care to focus on the quality of their lives rather than its duration.

Precisely for this reason we should think that there is a time of ultimate wishes that must be able to find a way to be expressed and welcomed, at least those that can be fulfilled.

How much joy is felt when in the last days of life someone – at home – in the hospital – in hospice – in the RSA – wishes to celebrate a marriage, to recognize children, to receive a visit from someone dear to them but who, due to adverse events, has moved away or the desire to return to the country of origin as happened to Natalina who wished to die in her Romania.

Reconnecting and giving meaning to one’s life often brings relief to those days that, in the collective imagination, seem destined to be only a source of tears, sadness and desolation.

Laura Bencini, a nurse, writes: “To be beside, for me it is here. It is now. It is in every moment of my thinking, of my acting in every place where I carry my soul. It is holding hands, touching each other, embracing each other
without being afraid that it will upset us …” verses that make us perceive the scope of the issue because it is not only about understanding how the ability to ‘be’ is fundamental in care, but how much, this, implies an emotional involvement that, continuously, is questioned within the daily health care.

Marta Bernardeschi, in the foreword to Adele Carli’s article, emphasizes how much “An authentic presence is not exhausted in doing, is not reduced only to acting, but is linked to meaning. Knowing how to listen and be silent are the basis for encounters founded on respect and recognition …”

In our educational experience, mostly related to the issues proper to the end of life, it is not uncommon to find students who are eager to share the feelings experienced during their internships in the course of which they live in a kind of “middle ground”: immersed in learning and putting into practice the “know how” at the expense of the emotions triggered by the relationship with patients.

It is, perhaps, a gap that exists in training? … can one be taught to “stand beside” suffering?

Luciana Coèn, a nurse who is involved in training, asked the question, “is it possible to teach a future practitioner to be in a relationship/situation of discomfort, of suffering, as it will be in the work? What role does the mentor/trainer have in developing/enhancing this attitude?” The answers she gives herself are articulated because it is not possible to answer with “yes” or “no.”

Article after article this issue delves, as much as possible, into the difficulty and declinations of “being” as, for example, in the relationship with foreign patients.

In this regard, Ilaria Marzotti, in explaining the “Italy-China Health Education and Communication” project, stresses how important it is in the field of prevention to “…establish a contact with those in front of you, a relationship. Without relationship you do not reach people, they are just words left in the wind. When in order to do prevention it is necessary to confront a different culture, you begin to encounter the first difficulties.”

(Gianluca Favero and Mariella Orsi)

It is possible to view the full issue of the magazine at http://www.laborcare.it”

Source

• Laborcare Journal (Editorial No. 12)

Image

• Image digitally created by spazio + spadoni