Cognitive Structures of Life Spaces,

¶ … cognitive structures of life spaces, one proceeds through three different stages as a learner, proceeding from the general to the specific and then back to the general. A nursing student's own education must experience such a change as he or she emerges from the initial phase of generalized learning, and through the use of the cognitive generalization process is able to comprehend the unique needs of a patient, in a specific context, while still being able to generalize her learned knowledge. For example, a new nurse beginning on a geriatric ward must possess the knowledge of what constitutes senile dementia. She must get to know her specific patients in the context of the geriatric ward she is working on and begin to know their basic orientation as personalities and people. But she must use cognitive generalization to take the symptoms she learned and apply the general symptoms to such a specific context. Symptoms are not simply understood as 'confusion,' but perhaps as having a larger cause of illness To take an example from life, a nurse might note 'Mrs. S did not seem confident as she usually is, when asking for her breakfast. Patient could not remember that she usually preferred cornflakes to All-Bran." (p. 201) The tendency of the patients to dementia was something generally searched for, and noticed in a specific case, but in a way that might have been overlooked without general observation and knowledge of senior confusion in this specific instance -- but finally, other symptoms must be noted to create a more general diagnosis in regards to the patient's exhibition of a variety of symptoms.

Question

The ability to create a common culture of nursing can be difficult. However, the stresses and joys of a nursing ward create a common life culture amongst nurses, even nurses from different backgrounds. The commiseration about long hours, or engaging in sympathetic discourse about patients or patient's suffering is a common bond. Even with patients, however, the commonality of a bond can exist when one talks about grandchildren, bonding over similar life experiences and stages, for example, a bond that transcends culture. This intersection makes the process of care less frightening and confusing, as now the nurse wears a human face. Likewise, inter-staff conflict is minimized through such bonding of commonality of gender, age, life experience, or vocational experiences. The life spaces that are most important in the culture of health care can be found in health, wellness, and concern about the body -- about caring for others such as children and parents as well as patients. Through a common language, of the concerns about others and about the body, nurses, staff, patients, and doctors of a variety of cultures can create common regions of discourse or life space even when their cultures may be quite different. Everyone has been given care, and been a caregiver in some capacity.