Nicaraguan Patterns of Resilience Essay Paper

Abstract

Despite their suffering and hardship, Nicaraguans were found to be resilient and resourceful during a recent visit to their country.  An 11-day Nicaragua practicum allowed for meeting and talking with Nicaraguans who have developed independent ways of caring for their fellow Nicaraguans where healing philosophies were revealed.  According to Newman, by finding meaning and understanding in disease and suffering, people can begin to recognize their patterns leading to the development of a higher level of consciousness or transcendence.  Newman further explained that people interact and evolve with each other and their environment as open energy systems, meaning the pattern and energy of one person is part of the greater whole.  Informants’ stories describe how individual and community patterns of energy come together to interact and transcend to new levels of understanding about health and wellness.  These stories of resilience and overcoming adversity inspire a visual metaphor of a phoenix rising from the ashes.  Newman’s Theory is helpful in nursing practice because it allows nurses to reframe their thinking about health and disease, appreciate peoples’ perceptions and expressions of illness and suffering, and facilitate the opportunity for awareness and growth to expand consciousness and transcend circumstances.  These informants’ stories are testimonies of how they continue to move forward demonstrating resilience in their ability to regenerate and recover despite ongoing adversity.

Keywords:  consciousness, energy, patterns, resilience, transcendence

Nicaraguan Patterns of Resilience

Nicaraguans have suffered much adversity due to multiple natural disasters and an extensive history of political revolution, war, and corruption, which has created economic hardship (Plunkett, 2007).  Despite their suffering and hardship, Nicaraguans were found to be resilient and resourceful during a recent visit to their country.  Patterns of their resilience were revealed in the stories of their experiences and perceptions.  Newman’s Health as Expanding Consciousness Theory assists in recognizing patterns of resilience through Nicaraguans’ life stories of transcending adversity, which can be visualized as a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (Central Intelligence Agency, n.d.).  Despite this, Nicaragua’s health care system continues to be based on the principle that health care is a right with the responsibility of the government’s Ministry of Health to provide that right.  However, inadequate funding and limited resources contribute to the lack of and unequal distribution of medical and social care.  According to Dr. Leonel Arguello, epidemiologist and President of the Nicaraguan Association of General Practitioners, corruption creating poverty is the leading disease, and health in their country is a problem of justice and poor quality of life (personal communication, February 20, 2018).  However, by assessing these disparities in healing and wellness processes, many Nicaraguans have evolved meaningful patterns of interaction within their communities to support the poorest and most disadvantaged.

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An 11-day Nicaragua practicum allowed for meeting and talking with Nicaraguans who have developed independent ways of caring for their fellow Nicaraguans, and healing philosophies were revealed as follows.  Many informants reported a sense of wanting to give back, feeling a responsibility to serve those suffering under similar circumstances previously experienced by themselves.   They have organized together to help one another and reported a sense of solidarity and unity because community is felt to provide energy and health.  Many informants expressed a commitment to educate and provide understanding, fight stigma and discrimination, and provide tools, skills, and support.  Others express a desire to raise awareness and advocate for those that are unable to do so for themselves and promote government regulation of practices that are injuring or exploiting people.  They are dedicated, and many trust in God to guide their cause.  They desire acceptance and social justice, for all people to be treated as human beings.  Nicaraguan Patterns of Resilience Essay Paper

To find meaning in illness or suffering, Newman (1990) developed the Health as Expanding Consciousness Theory to explain that health and illness are not separate processes.  Newman (1990; 1999) insists that health and illness are a unitary process of fluctuating patterns and that “disease in a meaningful aspect of health” (p.12).  In other words, health is not just the absence of disease but is rather a pattern of the whole person, which can manifest disease (1997), fluctuating and evolving throughout a person’s life.  Newman (1999) believes disease allows people to become aware of their patterns.  Recognition of these patterns to uncover meaning in life is necessary for the development of a higher level of consciousness.  Therefore, by finding meaning and understanding in disease, people can begin to recognize their patterns leading to the development of a higher level of consciousness or transcendence.

Pattern disorganization can be brought on by disease, illness, and traumatic or stressful events creating an opportunity for pattern transformation to a higher level of organization.  When the forces of these events are great enough, change occurs.  This change creates chaos until a new, higher level of organization and functioning develops.  This “ability to transform (these forces)…into a growth experience and move forward defines…resilience” (Polk, 1997, p. 1).

Newman (1999) further explained that people interact and evolve with each other and their environment as open energy systems.  Therefore, the pattern and energy of one person is part of the greater whole interacting with the pattern and energy of their family and the pattern and energy of their community.

Informants’ stories reveal healing philosophies of the Nicaraguan culture, which align with Newman’s concepts of pattern, energy, and transcendence.  Because of a lack of medical and social care, especially for the country’s poorest and most disadvantaged, concerned Nicaraguan citizens have formed independent organizations to bridge the gap in care and healing.  These informants’ stories describe how individual and community patterns of energy come together to interact and transcend to new levels of understanding about health and wellness.

Los Pipitos was formed by a group of parents with disabled children 31 years ago.  These disabled children were very disadvantaged in the Nicaraguan culture at that time.  To enhance the quality of their disabled children’s lives and to provide support for one another and transfer knowledge, a group of parents came together combining their energy to organize a new pattern of a higher level of care and specialized education for all disabled children (Dr. Ramon Gutierrez, personal community, February 22, 2018).  Los Pipitos is an example of the disabled individual’s pattern and energy interacting with the family’s pattern and energy, which then interacts with the community’s pattern and energy as open systems to transcend barriers.

Julio Cesar Mena communicated his story of being drafted into the Contra War in the 1980s and infected with HIV through a direct blood transfusion to save his life after being shot.  It was years later that he was diagnosed with HIV when attempting to donate blood.  He reported he was given 5 years to live, so he went home to his family to die, and on the last day, February 14, 1996, he prayed to God to take him to heaven.  However, he woke up still alive the next morning.  Because he was still alive, he then decided to educate himself and fight for his life.  As a result, he connected with two friends and founded the Nicaragua Association of Positive People Fighting for Life, working toward “HIV prevention through the promotion of different protection methods, promotion and defense of human rights for the people infected or affected by the epidemic, and providing information, education, and awareness raising on the topic” (personal communication, February 22, 2018).  Julio reported those with HIV and AIDS still endure much stigma and discrimination in Nicaragua.  Julio advocates for all people to be treated as human beings.  Julio’s story demonstrates how traumatic events and disease transformed his pattern and energy.  Julio experienced pattern chaos after being shot and then finding out he was positive for HIV.  Later, when Julio survived, he recognized new patterns of functioning at higher levels.  By living, he found new meaning in his life and developed a new connectedness with others, expanding his consciousness and transcending his disease to holistic health for himself and others.

Carmen Rios and her family worked in the Nicaraguan sugar cane fields.  After losing family members and friends, she dedicated her life to being a public health advocate for people dying from kidney failure as a consequence of being exposed to chemicals while working in the sugar cane fields.  As president of the Association of Chronic Renal Failure, she advocates for prevention as well as health care and compensation for those affected.  She has camped in Managua, Nicaragua, since March 9, 2009, to keep the government support ongoing (personal communication, February 23, 2018).  Carmen suffered losses in her life that created times of pattern disorganization.  By developing understanding of her losses, she developed an expanded consciousness of the need to advocate for others.  Therefore, the current energy of her new pattern connects with her community to transcend this injustice.

Due to extreme levels of poverty, Nicaraguans in rural communities have come together to create cooperatives.  During this visit to Nicaragua, members of a women’s agricultural cooperative involved in coffee production described that by working together collectively, they have become more empowered, increased their resilience, and reduced their individual risk and vulnerability.  Through this cooperative, these women organize and attend workshops to learn about self-esteem, health, the environment, and more.  By working as a cooperative, every woman has been able to benefit in ways that would not be possible individually (L. Acuna, personal communication, February 26, 2018).  The women’s cooperative is an example of individual and family patterns and energy interacting with the community’s pattern and energy as open systems to transcend barriers created by poverty.

To encourage local community involvement in health and to overcome lack of and unequal distribution of medical personnel, the Nicaragua Ministry of Health recruits community members to volunteer their time to assist in planning and meeting their own community’s health needs.  These community health workers are given training on how to approach people, how to promote health and wellness, how to assist medical personnel, and how to provide basic medical emergency care, which is extremely important in the remote rural areas of Nicaragua.  Despite stressful life circumstances related to poverty, these community members have voluntarily dedicated their time and energy to care for their fellow community members.  It is because the pattern and energy of their community’s stressful life circumstances are interacting with their individual pattern and energy that these voluntary community health workers have developed understanding of their community’s needs and have answered the call to serve, achieving a higher level of consciousness.

These stories of resilience and overcoming adversity inspire a visual metaphor of a phoenix rising from the ashes (see Appendix).  A phoenix is a colorful mythological bird that cyclically regenerates, obtaining new life by rising from its ashes.  A colorful phoenix rising signifies a person developing a new pattern and higher level of consciousness, transcending a pattern of disorganization represented as the ashes.  Just as the phoenix can cyclically regenerate itself, so can a person continue to achieve new patterns of higher levels of consciousness recognition with different events of disorganization throughout their lifetime.  This phoenix is red, orange, and blue:  Orange signifies strength and endurance, red is associated with energy and determination, and blue is associated with healing and understanding (Color Wheel  Pro – See Color Theory in Action, 2015).  This phoenix is able to fly and interact with its environment as well as with other phoenixes within its environment.  This phoenix rising from the ashes metaphor is guided by the assumption that when people move through experiences, they will develop higher levels of understanding.  However, many can get stuck in states of disorganization if support is not adequate.  Despite many individual and community efforts to support those dealing with disease, illness, and suffering, many can still continue to get stuck in states of disorganization as a result of cycles of poverty, alienation, and inhumanity.

Newman’s Theory in relation to this metaphor of resilience is helpful in nursing practice because it allows nurses to reframe their thinking about health and disease as a continuous process.  Therefore, levels of resilience can be assessed to appreciate peoples’ perceptions and expressions of illness and suffering.  This assessment will provide better understanding of a person’s overall pattern of health and allow for pattern interaction to encourage strengthening of resilience.  As humans, we are vulnerable to suffering.  However, by helping others embrace the experience of their suffering, nurses can facilitate the opportunity for pattern awareness and growth to expand consciousness and transcend circumstances.

Despite suffering and hardships, Nicaraguans were not found to be hardened or broken by their difficult lives.  These informants’ stories are testimonies of how they continue to move forward demonstrating resilience in their ability to regenerate and recover despite ongoing adversity.  This pattern of resilience is strengthened by the energy provided by community support and positive social interactions.

Appendix

References

Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.). https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nu.html

Color Wheel Pro – See Color Theory in Action. (2015). http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

Newman, M. A. (1990). Newman’s Theory of health as praxis. Nursing Science Quarterly, 3, 37-41.

Newman, M. A. (1997). Evolution of the Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness. Nursing Science Quarterly, 10, 22-25.

Newman, M. A. (1999). Health as Expanding Consciousness (2nd ed.). New York: National League for Nursing Press.

Plunkett, H. (2007). Nicaragua in focus: a guide to the people, politics and culture. New York: Interlink Books.

Polk, L. V. (1997). Toward a middle-range theory of resilience. Advances in Nursing Science, 19(3), 1-10.  Nicaraguan Patterns of Resilience Essay Paper