The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing (PDF)

The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing is a pragmatic text assisting nurses at every career level through the challenges and rewards of their everyday duty to care. It advances the seminal work of Drs. Betty Ferrell and Nessa Coyle to give voice to the suffering of patients, their families, and their communities, as well as the suffering of nurses and other clinicians.

This second edition has been updated in light of health and social care changes from the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the social determinants of health and increased visibility of marginalized populations across physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, ethical, cultural, and end-of-life domains to support whole-person and whole-people care. Contributing authors emphasize the qualitative experience of those who suffer alongside the best available evidence for person-centered nursing to promote meaning, growth, and introspection within the field of nursing. New and expanded chapters offer broader perspectives of patient populations across diseases and across the lifespan. Concrete steps for nurses to grow toward personal and professional healing and wholeness are provided.

Compassionate and holistic, The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Nursing reflects the lived experience of patients, families, and communities at the intersection of high-quality evidence, offering a rare window into what it means to practice nursing today in response to the suffering of those they serve.