The evening's common ground was the power of love.
Following The Mary Baker Eddy Library's groundbreaking panel discussion on "Nursing's Spiritual Roots in Contemporary Practice," a nursing department director at a Boston-area hospital said he wished everyone in the nursing field could hear panelist Jean Watson's sincere beliefs on the importance of caring and love in nursing. And a Christian Science nurse, who also attended the March 26 event, found it inspiring to know that, within the medical nursing field, "there is a movement toward focusing on spirituality and the wholeness of an individual, with Love being the motivator."
In welcoming an audience of over one hundred that included medical nurses, public health workers, and Christian Science nurses, Lesley Pitts, the Library's executive manager and president, noted that Mary Baker Eddy and Florence Nightingale were contemporaries who spoke and wrote about the importance of a nurse's demeanor and spiritual roots. Both women also lived unconventional lives for their times, Ms. Pitts said. And she noted that panelists Margaret (Peggy) Burkhardt, Jean Watson, and Linda Kohler "are unconventional nurses of our time."
