After teaching a group of health-care practitioners in Seattle I was asked by a number of them where “the book” was for the class. The requests for “the book” got me thinking…and writing. In the Autumn of 2005, I began writing my book and since that time it’s been a journey of insight, joy, doubt, stagnation and inspiration. Any emotion or thought that could arise in my mind did, and it was my task to encounter and deal with the distractions to my writing as they occurred. Which reminds me, that’s what the book is about; dealing with the distractions that keep us from really showing up at the bedside.

Published on September 26 2011, Minding the Bedside : Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind is a book about how to bring our focus (mindfulness), attention (meditative awareness), and compassion to the bedside. It’s also about how our genuine desire to help others gets repeatedly sidetracked by distractions and preoccupations, and how the greatest cause of these distractions is nothing other than our mind.

I’ve worked as a Registered Nurse, in a variety of settings, for thirty years. I wish that I could say that during that time I’ve always provided compassionate, attentive, patient-centered care. I haven’t. In fact, there have been times when I’ve left my shift wondering if I was really there for the work, or whether I’d just clocked-in, worked, and clocked-out without acknowledging that my job had been to help serve those in need.

Over the years I’ve realized that within myself, and within all those engaged in “helping professions” resides the genuine desire to alleviate suffering in others; we each have a wellspring of compassion which – at its heart – longs to help others in their time of need. The problem is that many of us have lost our connection to it, or have not realized its full potential.

Part of the challenge comes from the fact that most of us have never been taught practices for mindfulness (focus), meditative awareness (attention), or compassion. Additionally, in our profession, we’ve probably been worn down by thankless shift work, unsafe patient assignments, lack of recognition and burnout, all added to the stresses of life itself. We’ve lost our connection to our undistracted nature, to a mind free from distraction, and to the source and inspiration of our caring heart.

For many of us, we may not even know how to maintain our focus, attention and compassion while at the bedside, we may never have touched this place within ourselves. Until now…

What the book Minding the Bedside: Nursing from the Heart of the Awakened Mind has to offer are practical and simple methods designed to help with training our mind in a way that allows us to be with our patients in a non-distracted, present and compassionate way. It offers a way back to that part of us that cares about others almost more than we care about ourselves. What I’ve learned, and what I hope to share with you, is how to train the mind in non-distraction, bringing it back to the exquisite moment of the present and to its true nature of mindful compassion.

Based on practices from numerous spiritual and contemplative disciples, as well as inspiration that I’ve gained from the writings of mystics, saints, scientists and poets; this book is my expression of gratitude, my attempt at giving back to nursing something in return for the immeasurable personal, psychological, and spiritual reward that this noble profession has given me.