Integrative Nursing Around the Globe

3 Editorial N urses and other healthcare professionals from around the world are meeting May United States are gathering to explore how integrative nursing is being implemented in various settings and with diverse patient populations. Presentations will focus on characteristics of successful integrative health programs as well as the emerging research agenda underlying integrative nursing. A major focus is on strategies to improve the health and wellbeing of caregivers. In 2014, I had the pleasure of co-editing with Mary Koithan, PhD, RN, a book published by Oxford Press titled Integrative Nursing (https://global.oup.com/academic/ product/integrative-nursing-9780199860739? cc=us&lang=en&). This volume is part of the Oxford University Press Integrative Medicine Library series edited by Andrew Weil, MD. In the foreword of the book, Dr Weil, a luminary in the field of integrative health and medicine, noted that nurses have a critical role to play in transforming healthcare and that the principles and practices of integrative nursing have a strong theoretical base as well as the wisdom of collective experience. And indeed it was a collective who contributed to the book! Close to 80 nurses participated in writing chapters, and many hundreds more gave input along the way. Our hope in writing the book and in organizing the Iceland Symposium was to catalyze a movement in nursing that would serve to realign the profession around core values and principles. While the essence of nursing has long been whole-person (body, mind, and spirit) and whole system–focused, in reality, the contemporary practice of nursing in many settings around the globe has become increasingly fragmented and destabilized. Nursing shortages in many parts of the world are significant, and hierarchies and bureaucracies often remove nurses from the point of care, be that the bedside, home, or clinic, replacing them with less skilled workers and filling their time with documentation and other administrative tasks. Stress in the healthcare environment also takes a toll on nurses. The term burnout is used to describe workers' reaction to chronic stress and is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. 1 Burnout among nurses has been reported to be higher than that among other health professionals. 2 As noted by Khamisa et al, nursing requires the delivery of humane, empathetic, culturally sensitive, proficient, and moral care in working environments with limited resources and increasing responsibilities. 3 When nurses experience burnout , it impacts their personal wellbeing as well as the quality and efficacy …