The art of nursing. "Frank's story": student response.

The author of this article explores her definition of the art of nursing through a response to an interview by Dr. Kathryn Gramling with a patient named Frank. She determines that nursing, although it also requires technical skill and a strong knowledge base, becomes art when the practitioner adopts the caring skills of compassion, touching, and empathy. The poem Dr. Gramling wrote in response to her contact with Frank reinforces the definition created by the author. When some patients enter a hospital, they experience certain feelings, such as fear, uncertainty, and helplessness. They are placed in a strange setting and are not in the best of health, but each patient deals with sickness differently. Some may act frightened, while others may act impatient and uncooperative. Often, it is a nurse's duty to help ease a patient through this difficult transition. The way a nurse does this makes all the difference to a patient's stay at the hospital. A nurse's impact on the patient can affect the patient either positively or negatively. A nurse must go above and beyond the technical part of nursing in order to make nursing an art.