A Call to Serve in the Nursing Profession

ABSTRACT Introduction: A call to serve in the service professions has been viewed as an essential element to provide meaning in one’s life as it has been written, “for it is in giving that we receive” (St. Francis of Assisi, 13th century). Other thinking suggests this notion leads to undue personal sacrifice and exploitation of one’s goodness. Objective: To determine the relevance of a call to serve in today’s nursing environment and assess if nursing practice is a moral imperative. Also, to determine if nurses value a call to serve in nursing curricula. Method: An 8-question Likert survey with one qualitative question was posted to the Nursing Research Community Digest on the Sigma Theta Tau website. This study was approved by the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center institutional review board (IRB) and was open for 10 days in December 2023. Results: Twenty-seven (27) Sigma nurses responded. Opportunities for further exploration include addressing ambivalent responses and qualitative statements related to moral imperative, societal support and inclusion of the arts in a nursing curriculum. Conclusion: The study suggests that awareness and dialogue is needed to clarify the relationship between esotericism and its influence in the care we provide to the world. Keywords: call to serve, moral imperative, nursing curricula, societal support, inclusion of the arts, esotericism