To touch and be touched by Fragility

Venue: Museum M Leuven Belgium - Hybrid event

DATE: TUESDAY, November 26th  2024

Prof. dr. Yvonne Denier, KU Leuven & UCLL, Resilient People Stimulans

Ethics is a cornerstone of nursing care, guiding practitioners in navigating the complexities of patient care with moral clarity. Among the various ethical frameworks that inform nursing practice, care ethics has gained prominence for its focus on relationships, responsibility, and the moral significance of care itself. Care ethics is rooted in the contextual and relational dynamics of caregiving. In this contribution, I examine the integration of care ethics into nursing education, highlighting the role of experiential learning in fostering the ability to engage in shifting perspective, a critical aspect of ethical practice in nursing.

Care ethics, with its emphasis on relational interdependence and the responsibilities arising from care relationships, aligns naturally with the core values of nursing. However, the educational approach to care ethics transcends mere theoretical understanding. It requires a commitment to immersive, reflective learning experiences that enable students to shift perspectives and respond ethically within the nuanced contexts of patient care.

In this lecture I will explore the theoretical foundations of care ethics from a fully different angle. With the help of various objects from our ordinary daily lives, I will touch upon essential aspects of experiential learning in nursing education, and offer practical insights into how these aspects can be effectively integrated to enrich ethical nursing practice, which is, after all, a matter of human connection.

Prof. dr. Marlies Demunck, University of Antwerp

At a time when the workload for healthcare providers keeps increasing and healthcare institutions are becoming more and more impersonal, developing an emotional 'husk' seems to be the best solution to prevent moral stress and burnout. As a result, many organizations encourage their employees to strengthen and shield their inner self, for example by exercising or taking yoga or mindfulness classes. The central idea is that a healthy mind in a healthy body is better able to withstand moral stress. But doesn't a husk only give life when it opens up? What if moral suffering is a sign of moral health, and not of a lack thereof? This lecture starts from the belief that the core of our moral well-being lies in our fragility – our ability to open up and be touched – not in shielding ourselves, and that the arts have an important role to play in this.

First, it should be noted that the pressure to avoid moral distress and burnout should not be shifted exclusively to the individual healthcare provider. Moral well-being ought not to be a privilege only for the 'fittest' in the professional rat race. Therefore, institutions should always strive for an approach that acknowledges and solves structural problems at the policy level. 

Meanwhile, the individual caregiver can explore another path that does not strive for self-protection but starts from a desire for connection. Since moral resilience does not lie in strengthening our defensive walls, but rather in the ability to be touched, the arts can offer an ideal starting point and training ground for this. From literature to painting, from music to theatre, works of art can literally and figuratively teach us how to be touched. This lecture will therefore present a number of concrete art works to show how, by training an aesthetic attitude, we can not only strengthen the moral dimension of care, but also foster a deeper connection between ourselves and the world.